TimeRiders: The Time Enforcers
by AlFin94
Summary: This story is set between The Mayan Prophecy and The Infinity Cage in the TimeRiders series. While preparing for their holiday, a freak accident blasts Maddy, Liam and Rashim into the future where they soon find themselves on the run from a group of, previously unknown, time travel law enforcers. Please do review, i'd love to hear your feedback and sorry it's so long. Enjoy!


**TimeRiders: The Time Enforcers**

 **1889, London**

Liam was worried.

Their visit to Brighton had clearly done Maddy some good but she still wasn't the same. She hardly spoke to anyone and, when she did, her voice was little more than a whisper and had no feeling or emotion. But the real indication of her mood was her eyes. They looked lost and empty.

It wasn't just Maddy who was feeling it; everyone in the archway was in a really sombre mood. Even the support units were much more quiet than usual. Although everyone was feeling it, Maddy was by far the worst of them.

Three weeks had now passed since the TimeRiders returned from 1479; A few days later, Liam had suggested that they go to Brighton for a couple of days. It had now been two weeks since they came back; Maddy had seemed quite chirpy whilst they were away but, once they got back to London, she seemed to withdraw more into herself.

Liam had realised that getting away from the darkness of their archway had really helped lift Maddy's spirits and had allowed her to temporarily forget about the sadness of losing Sal and Adam.

Liam had discussed it with Rashim. He felt the same.

'I know what you mean,' he had said, 'Maddy's not the same person she was before we left for 1479.'

'There doesn't seem to be any life in her.'

'Losing Sal was bad enough. But losing Adam as well; that's what tipped her.'

'Do you think there's anything we can do to help her?'

'I don't know, Liam.'

'She seemed happier when we were in Brighton.'

'Yes you're right but we can't just keep going to and from there all the time.'

Liam had stroked his chin thoughtfully.

'Maybe we should try and get away from London for more than a few days,' he suggested. 'What if we go away for a few weeks? Maybe a few months even?'

Rashim was about to reject the idea but then gave it a moment's consideration. It was not something he had ever dreamt of them doing but it did make a lot of sense. Maddy was clearly not getting any better and an extended trip away from the confines of their archway would probably do her the world of good.

'It's an interesting idea, Liam,' he said, thoughtfully. 'But where could we go?'

'I don't know. What about…'

And that's when it hit Liam square in the face.

Liam and Rashim had continued to discuss the possibility of what Liam intended for them to do for their holiday. Rashim realised that Liam's idea was, in a way, fairly simple. But, at the same time, he knew it would take a long time for them to carry it all out. However, both Rashim and Liam agreed that it would be very beneficial for all of them; especially Maddy.

The following morning, Rashim and the support units went out for the weekly shopping trip. Rashim had decided that he would tell the support units of what he and Liam had discussed the night before while they were out. Leaving Liam to inform Maddy. Not long after Rashim and the support units had departed, Liam decided that now was the moment.

Maddy was sitting in one of the armchairs looking the exact same as she'd been for the past two weeks. Liam drew a breath and went over to talk to her.

He crouched down beside her. Maddy was barely moving and her face was completely blank. She reminded Liam of the support units before they had their micro-what-sa-ma-jinxies installed. Initially, Maddy didn't notice that Liam was there. He lightly coughed and her whole body jolted and she quickly turned to face him, almost as if she had just been woken up from a long sleep.

'Oh, Liam,' she said in a startled voice. 'Sorry, I was miles away.'

'How are you?' he asked.

She shrugged 'Same ol', same ol' really.'

'Listen, Mads, I've had an idea.' He paused to see how she would react. But her face didn't change, so he continued. 'I think it would be good if we got away from the archway for a while. This most recent "adventure" of ours took a heavy toll on us all. I don't know about you Mads, but I think we all deserve a holiday.'

'What, are you suggesting we go back to Brighton?' she asked quizzically.

'No, I'm suggesting that we get out of England completely.' This time, Maddy's expression changed and, for the first time in two weeks, she looked genuinely interested. She didn't say anything so he carried on.

'I was thinking we should take some sort of cruise –'

'They don't have cruises in this time period,' Maddy cut in sarcastically.

'Well you know what I mean; we should sort of…' he tried to think of the right word. 'Work our way around the world, enjoy ourselves, see all the sights; and once we're done, we'll come back here and sort out this Pandora thing once and for all, so we will.'

Liam waited to see what Maddy's reaction would be.

She seemed to be processing what he had said and, for a moment, he thought that she was just going to tell him how stupid his idea was.

But, to his astonishment, a smile slowly spread across her face and she started to laugh.

'You know, Liam,' she said while laughing, 'I'm starting to worry about you.'

'What do you mean?'

'All the ideas you normally think of are completely rubbish. But you've now thought of two great ideas within a matter of weeks. I'm starting to wonder if we left the real Liam back in 1479.'

Liam felt a huge surge of hope. This was more like the Maddy he knew.

'You're right, Liam,' she said. 'A long holiday is just what we all need. We'll work out our travel route later. Have you told the others?'

'Rashim and I talked about it yesterday. He agreed it would be good for us and said he'd update Bob and Becks while they were out.'

'Wonder what they're going to think of it.'

Liam considered the thought. Support units having a holiday is something he'd never thought of before. At that point, he imagined Bob wearing speedos and Becks lying on a sunbed getting a tan. Maddy was clearly thinking of something similar as she started to laugh again; then Liam joined in. They were still laughing several minutes later.

Rashim and the support units came back to the archway shortly after one o'clock loaded with bags full of food. Rashim was absolutely dumbfounded at the change in Maddy but, at the same time, he was thrilled to see she was more like her old self.

'Hey guys,' she said very chirpily. 'Did it all go ok?'

'Yes, everything went fine,' he said.

'Brilliant!'

She turned to the support units.

'Has Rashim told you about our holiday plans?'

'Yes he has, Maddy,' said Bob.

'And what do you think?'

They both glanced at each other.

'We have all had a very stressful few months,' said Becks. 'I believe we have earned a break, but must we try to see the whole world?'

'Yeah, why not?' said Maddy enthusiastically. 'It'll be great fun. There's so much out there to see and I don't think anything amazing is going to happen here in London.'

'You are aware that we will likely be away for many months?' asked Bob.

'Yes I am. But I don't care. We've been staring at the walls of this archway for what? Three or four months now?'

'Information: we have been living here for exactly five months, twenty-one days–'

Maddy held up a hand.

'Thank you, Bob but I wasn't looking for the exact figures.'

'Apologies, Maddy,' he said obediently.

'Point is, this will allow us to have a change of scenery which we haven't had in a long time.'

The two support units glanced at each other again.

'If that is what you want to do, Maddy,' said Becks, 'then we will be happy to accompany you.'

'Splendid!' she said whilst clapping her hands together.

She then turned to Rashim and Liam.

'Right then,' she said. 'You two can help me pick an ideal travel route,' she then turned back to the support units. 'And you two lugnuts can start packing!'

Twenty-four hours later, everything was ready.

Maddy, Liam and Rashim had been hunched over their computer for two and a half hours whilst they plotted their course. Maddy had been actively engaging in their conversations about where they should go and how long to spend at each destination. Liam and Rashim had kept looking at each other. They both knew that Maddy was now well-and-truly back to her old self.

Meanwhile, Bob and Becks had gone out and bought a number of suitcases with which to carry their stuff. They then spent a long time calculating and deciding on what items they were most likely to require whilst on holiday. After Maddy, Liam and Rashim had finished, they came over to help. During the packing process, there were a number of arguments about what should and shouldn't be taken but, eventually, they came to an agreement and packing was finished just before midday.

Liam then went to inform Delbert Hook of their planned voyage. Their landlord didn't seem overly pleased and did continually inquire about whether they were planning to return but eventually accepted it. He too had recently looked very depressed. Liam and the others had quickly worked out that it was due to the fact that Bertie had left. Although Delbert had never admitted it, Liam knew that, deep down, he had a lot of respect for Bertie and enjoyed having him around. But Delbert was constantly mocking and ridiculing the young man. Now it appeared that Delbert was blaming himself for Bertie's departure.

Meanwhile, Rashim had to tell Spongebubba that he wouldn't be coming with them on holiday. The lab unit didn't take it very well.

'Why not skippa?' he had said. 'I lo-o-o-ve holidays!'

'I know you do, Bubba but you need to remember we're not in 2069 anymore. This is 1889. There certainly aren't any lab units around in this time and there's no way we'll be able to bring you along without you being seen by someone. No offence, Bubba, but you will attract a lot of unwanted attention; which is not what we want.'

'Awwwwww,' Spongebubba groaned.

At that point, Maddy felt sorry for the lab unit. She had grown to really love Spongebubba and didn't want to leave him behind just as much as Rashim. Therefore, she decided to try a different approach.

She knelt down beside him.

'Look, Spongebubba,' she said affectionately. 'If we were in 2069 we would take you with us without a second thought. But sadly we can't; Rashim is right. But think of it this way, you'll have the whole archway to yourself! You can do whatever you want while we're gone. Well, within reason.'

'I'll be the boss!' Spongebubba squeaked excitedly.

'Yes you will be. This will be your base, you will be in charge. You'll have to promise not to be too noisy though. If Delbert Hook hears you, he'll wonder what's going on and we'll have a bit of a problem.'

'Don't worry, Maddy. I'll keep my volume levels re-e-eally lo-o-o-ow.'

'Good,' she said while laughing. 'We'll lock the door so no one can come in. But if someone knocks on the door or if you hear anything outside, just ignore it and don't make a sound until you're sure whatever it is has gone.'

'Righto!'

With everything ready, the group decided that they would set off first thing in the morning. Little did they know that Maddy's earlier statement was wrong. Something amazing _was_ about to happen in London.

It came very gradually, slowly approaching London like a lion waiting to pounce on its unsuspecting prey. When it arrived, the people certainly noticed it. But they did not react, for it had not yet shown its full power. But it steadily grew stronger… and stronger until, eventually, it struck London with all its might. The people then began to flee for shelter like pigs trying to escape slaughter. Nothing could stand in its way; and it was not going to stop.

 _It_ was a savage thunderstorm. It approached London from the south-east side and then began to swing north; leaving a path of destruction in its wake. The rain was so heavy that, to the people in their homes, it felt like their roofs were being barraged with bullets. The wind made it sound as if ghosts were roaming London; wailing while they hunted for their next helpless victim. But the worst of all was the lightning strikes being fired from the clouds. Every few seconds there was a flash of light and a loud boom to indicate the storm was leaving its mark. Had it not been raining, the buildings struck by the lightning would, almost certainly, have caught fire.

In the Holborn Viaduct, the TimeRiders were certainly unsettled by the current weather situation.

'Jay-zus! Is this storm ever going to stop?' Liam asked in desperation.

'I'm starting to wonder that myself,' said Maddy.

'Do not worry,' Bob said reassuringly. 'This storm should, theoretically, have passed by the morning.'

'Well I certainly hope you're right, Bob,' said Maddy.

Liam suddenly looked alert.

'Hey,' he said quizzically. 'What's that rattling sound?'

The others all looked around the archway. They too could hear the sound but it wasn't clear where it was coming from.

Then Rashim worked it out.

He let out a huge sigh and, without turning around to look, he said 'Spongebubba, come out from under the table.'

'But it's sca-a-a-r-r-r-y-y-y!' The lab unit squeaked with its joints rattling.

'Wimp,' said Rashim while rolling his eyes.

Liam was getting more and more worried. The rain was hammering down, the wind was howling and the fact that the lightning strikes were getting louder and more frequent made it clear that the storm was heading in their direction.

'Guys?' he asked with growing concern. 'Are we safe here? Because the storm is definitely getting closer and I'm wondering whether the archway will be strong enough to withstand whatever the storm throws at it.'

'The archway is made out of strong brick, Liam,' said Rashim. 'It's very well built, I'm pretty sure that we'll be alright.'

'You're _pretty_ sure?' asked Maddy inquisitively.

'Well… I don't know for certain but, hypothetically, we should be safe here.'

'Ri-i-ight,' said Maddy without much enthusiasm.

 _BANG!_

Maddy and Spongebubba screamed. Rashim and Liam jumped. Even the support units were startled.

'Jay-zus! That scared the life outta me!' said Liam.

'It actually sounded like it hit the roof,' said Maddy.

'I believe it did, Maddy,' said Becks.

'Well then we need to go out and see if that strike has caused any damage to the roof.'

'Are you nuts, Maddy?!' said Liam in disbelief. 'It's vicious out there!'

'Maddy is correct, Liam,' said Bob.

'What do you mean?'

'If the lightning strike has caused serious damage to the roof, then it will need to be repaired before we go on holiday.'

'But have you not seen the weather?! It's way too dangerous out there! Can't we wait until the storm has stopped?'

'Yes, Liam I have seen the weather. I am aware that it is dangerous but we must inspect the roof sooner rather than later. If there is damage, then it may develop further if we wait until the storm has passed over.'

'Plus we do not know how much longer the storm will last,' added Becks. 'It could last for another five minutes or five hours.'

Liam sighed. 'Ok I see your point,' he said. 'But who's gonna go out and check? I'm certainly not gonna do it!'

'Do not worry, Liam,' said Bob. 'Becks and I will do it.'

'Are you sure?'

'Affirmative. We will climb up onto the roof, check to see if there is any damage and then we will come back inside.'

The support units made their way towards the door.

'Be careful!' Maddy called after them.

'We will, Maddy!' Becks called back.

Bob and Becks stepped outside. The full force of the wind hit them immediately. Had they been human, the strong gusts would have instantly knocked them over and they would have had a hard time staying on their feet. Their large frames meant that they were able to stay standing but they still had to battle against the very strong blasts of wind.

It didn't take a great deal of working out to know using a ladder was out of the question. So the support units found another way to get up to the roof. They dug their fingers into the brickwork to create their own small handholds and gradually made their way up. It took a little while, but they eventually made it to the top.

They started scanning the roof to determine exactly where the lightning had struck.

'Here it is!' Bob called out to Becks.

She ran over to join him. They crouched down to examine the damage.

The lightning strike had made a small bowl-shaped hole in the roof. Bob ran his fingers along the surface. It was still warm from where it had been struck.

'The damage does not appear to be very serious!' He shouted above the noise of the wind and rain. 'The hole is not very deep and it does not feel like the brickwork has been weakened by the strike!'

Becks also quickly ran her hand along the surface of the hole.

'I would agree!' she shouted back. 'I think we will be able to – '

 _BANG!_

The support units jumped back in surprise as another lightning strike descended from the clouds; this time coming down on a section of the power station close to their archway.

'You think we will be able to what, Becks?' asked Bob.

'That we will be able to go away on holiday without having to worry about this damage,' she said.

'I concur,' he said. 'It appears Rashim was right. This brickwork is quite strong.'

'I suggest we go back inside,' said Becks. 'The others will be pleased to know the damage is only minor.'

'Yes they will.'

The support units could have jumped off the roof and landed on the ground without so much as a scratch. However, due to the weather conditions, they decided it would be safer to climb down. They were soon back on the ground and then went inside. As they approached the archway door, they both noticed that they could not hear any noises coming from the other side. They glanced at each other curiously. Bob slowly pushed the door open and the two support units found themselves staring into complete darkness. They both carefully stepped inside.

'Maddy?' called Bob.

No answer.

'Liam? Rashim?'

Still no answer.

'Where are they?' Becks asked.

'I do not know,' said Bob.

'Bob?' a voice called out of the darkness.

'Spongebubba?' Bob called back. 'Is that you?'

'Yeah. I'm over here!'

The two support units followed the direction of Spongebubba's voice. Bob then felt himself hit something solid.

'Ow! Watch it!' said Spongebubba.

'Sorry, Spongebubba,' Bob said apologetically. 'What happened here? Where are the others?'

 **Five minutes earlier…**

'Do you think they'll be alright out there?' Liam asked with concern in his voice.

'They should be,' said Maddy. 'The lightning has already struck the roof once. So, if what they say is true, it shouldn't strike there again. Even if it does, it probably won't cause them any lasting damage. Their bodies aren't like ours, Liam.'

'Yeah I suppose you're right.'

The storm had now been raging for nearly two hours; and it appeared that the conditions were starting to improve. The rain was still coming down at an incredibly fast rate but it had certainly eased. The frequency of lightning strikes was getting shorter and the wind was now quieter.

However, the conditions were still very brutal. The storm was not finished with London yet.

 _BANG!_

'Jay-zus! There goes another one!' said Liam.

'That one sounded a bit further away than the last one,' said Maddy.

'Which should be a sign that it's moving away from us? Right?'

'Yes, Liam that would be an accurate conclusion.' said Rashim.

'You sounded like one of the support units there!' said Maddy, almost amused.

'Oh did I?' Rashim said embarrassingly. 'Sorry.'

There were a few moments silence as they listened to the patter of the rain. But then Liam suddenly noticed something.

'Uh…. guys?'

'Yes, Liam? What is it?' said Maddy curiously.

'What's going on with the computer?'

Maddy and Rashim turned to look towards the other end of the archway. They had left the computer on after they finished plotting their holiday course but it had since gone into standby mode. However, the screen had now lit up. The three of them were on the other side of the archway along with Spongebubba who was still cowering under the table and the support units were outside checking the roof. No one had gone near it, yet it had somehow come back on.

'What on earth?' said Rashim while going over to inspect the computer.

Maddy and Liam stood up.

'What's happening Rashim?' asked Maddy.

'Nothing much from what I can– '

The computer suddenly started making a humming noise which gradually grew louder.

'What the hell is going on?!' Maddy shouted, 'Rashim? What's happening?!'

'The displacement machine is activating!' he yelled in desperation.

'What?!'

Maddy and Liam ran over to join Rashim. Sure enough, the readings on the screen were clearly indicating that the displacement machine was powering up.

'Goddammit, Rashim shut it down!' She screamed.

Rashim furiously tapped at the keyboard but the humming was just getting louder.

'I can't! It's not responding!'

At that moment, sparks began to fly from the keyboard. Rashim cried out in pain and staggered away from the keyboard as a spark landed on his hand.

'Get away from there!' yelled Liam.

The three of them moved to the centre of the archway. The humming was now positively deafening, sparks were exploding from all over the computer and a strange white light was now building up around where they were standing.

'What's happening now?!' shouted Maddy.

'I don't know!' said Rashim.

'Quick! Unplug it before–'

The lights suddenly turned off, the humming stopped and the screen went blank.

Spongebubba had heard everything that was going on with the computer but was still too scared of the storm to come out from under the table to see what was happening. After the power cut out, the only noise he could hear was the rain.

'Skippa?'

There was no reply.

'So I crawled out from under the table to see if they'd been knocked out or something but I couldn't find them. Also, I noticed a large chunk of the floor had gone as well. I worked out that's where they were standing when the power cut out. And then you walked in,' Spongebubba finished explaining.

'This is very worrying,' said Bob.

He looked towards Becks.

'Let us try to work this out,' he said. 'Something caused the displacement machine to activate which resulted in a build-up of a 'white light' and then the power cut out and everything inside this light disappeared.'

'Yes, Bob that sounds accurate,' she said.

'What could have caused the machine to activate though?'

They all thought about it.

'I think I know,' Becks said suddenly.

'Explain please,' said Bob.

'Do you remember, when we were up on the roof, we saw lightning strike a section of the power station close to the archway?'

'Affirmative.'

'I believe that strike must have, somehow, affected the generator from which we draw our power from and –'

'– caused a power surge which then activated the displacement machine,' Bob finished the sentence.

'Affirmative; And that white light Spongebubba described must have been a portal.'

'But the machine does not normally function that way,' Bob said, confused. 'The portals only open when we are returning from a mission. Not when we are leaving.'

'You are correct,' she agreed. 'The power surge must have caused irregularities in the system.'

'It is fortunate that the power cut out when it did. Had it not, the portal would have kept growing and could have consumed the whole archway. Or worse.'

Becks nodded in agreement. 'It is highly probable that Maddy, Liam and Rashim have now been transported somewhere in time,' she said.

'Where do you think they are?' Spongebubba asked in his childlike voice.

'They will still be in London, Spongebubba,' said Bob. 'It's _when_ they are that we do not know. They could be anywhere in the past or future.'

'So what do we do?' Spongebubba asked.

Bob thought for a moment.

'We must restore the power and repair any damage caused by the power surge,' he said. 'If Maddy, Liam and Rashim have survived, then they will, most likely, try to contact us or give us some indication of when they are. Therefore, we must have all systems operational as soon as possible so that, if they make an attempt to contact us, we will be able to receive it and be ready to respond.'

'I agree,' said Becks.

'So what do we do first?' Spongebubba asked.

'Our first priority needs to be to bring the power back on,' said Bob. 'Spongebubba, go and fetch the torches.'

'Okie dokey!' the lab unit chirped.

Spongebubba waddled off into the darkness. Slowly feeling his way around the archway so as not to walk into anything.

'Bob?'

'Yes, Becks?'

She drew a breath 'You are aware there is a possibility that we may not hear from them at all?'

'I am,' he said sombrely. 'But we must still do our best to get everything up and running again. It would be catastrophic if they made an attempt to contact us and we did not get it.'

'You are right,' said Becks 'But we must also be prepared in the event in that we never hear from them again.'

'We will just have to hope that it does not come to that.'

For what felt like the hundred-thousandth time, Maddy, Liam and Rashim experienced that horrible feeling of falling. Then, without warning, they hit solid ground with an almighty thud.

For a few moments, none of them moved. Then they slowly started shifting uncomfortably which was shortly followed by grunts and groans as they felt the full impact of hitting a hard, solid ground at full speed.

'Ugh!' groaned Maddy as she slowly pulled herself into a sitting position. 'Liam? Rashim? Are you both alright?'

'My back is aching,' Liam replied. 'But otherwise, I'm good!'

'I'm alright too,' said Rashim.

'What the heck just happened?' Liam asked.

'I'm not sure,' said Maddy. 'It all happened so quickly. The last thing I remember is that white light building up around us. Next thing I know, we're falling.'

'Yes, Maddy that's right,' said Rashim as he too pulled himself up. 'The displacement machine somehow activated and I couldn't get it to shut down.'

'How did it switch on anyway?' Liam asked curiously as he sat up. 'None of us were anywhere near the computer yet it came off standby mode on its own and then the displacement machine powered up.'

Rashim shrugged. 'It must've been a power surge of some sort.'

Maddy looked puzzled. 'Well then what caused the surge?' she asked. 'They don't just start on their own.'

'Could the storm have had something to do with it?' Liam suggested.

'I don't think so, Liam,' said Maddy.

'Actually,' said Rashim. 'I think Liam might be right.'

'What do you mean?'

'If I remember correctly, we heard a lighting strike just before the computer came back on. That strike must have hit the power station; and, somehow, affected the generator we get our power from which then caused the surge.'

Maddy was slowly nodding. 'That does make sense,' she said. 'And that white light we saw must've been a portal.'

'Yes,' Rashim agreed. 'And we got caught in it and then it brought us here.'

There was a few moments silence as Rashim's words hung in the air.

'Well at least we all made it through in one piece,' said Liam.

'Yes, Liam that is very true,' said Rashim.

Maddy looked around.

They'd landed in what looked to be an alleyway. It was night time but the moon was full and illuminating the area. There was another light at one end of the alley that looked to be coming from a street lamp of some sort. She also noticed that there were chunks of concrete dotted around where they'd landed.

'We've brought some of the archway with us,' she said matter-of-factly.

'But where exactly have we brought it to?' Liam asked.

'You should be asking _when_ have we brought it to, Liam, 'she replied, 'We won't have moved geographically.'

'Ah yes, you're right,' he said, 'So _when_ are we then?'

'I haven't the foggiest,' she said.

'Why don't we go and have a look around?' suggested Rashim.

'That's probably a good idea,' said Liam, 'It might help give us a clue as to what we should do next.'

'Alright then, let's go,' said Maddy.

The three of them stood up.

'I think that way is our best bet,' said Maddy, pointing towards the light coming from the end of the alley.

They walked towards the light and emerged from the alley into what appeared to be a street of some kind. There didn't seem to be anyone nearby. They looked around to try and get a better sense of where they were.

'Look!' Liam suddenly shouted.

Maddy and Rashim turned to face him.

Liam was pointing at a large electronic clock mounted on a tower in the distance. The time on it read: 03:34. But, underneath the time, was what appeared to be the date. It read: 16/05/57.

'I see it,' said Rashim.

'So, what does that mean?' Liam asked. 'Are we in 2057?'

'It certainly looks like it, Liam,' said Maddy. 'The sixteenth of May at nearly twenty-five minutes to four in the morning to be precise.'

'Jay-zus.' Liam muttered under his breath.

'Rashim?' Maddy asked. 'Is this good or bad?'

'Why are you asking me?' he said, confused.

'Because you've lived in this time,' she replied 'You know what's going on. Is there anything that we should know about?'

'I don't know _everything_ that happened in 2057, Maddy,' he said, almost angry.

'I know that,' she said empathetically, 'Sorry, I didn't mean it like that. It's just that… you'll have a better idea of what's going on in this time than me and Liam. Is there anything significant that you can think of happening in 2057 that might affect us?'

'Um… Nothing immediately springs to…'

He stopped mid-sentence and his face completely froze.

'Rashim?' Liam asked.

Maddy could see the look of worry on his face.

'What is it Rashim?!' she demanded. 'What have you thought of?!'

He suddenly looked very fearful and began rapidly looking around like a dog that had lost its owner.

'We need to move away from here now,' he said suddenly with panic in his voice.

'What on earth are you talking about?' Maddy asked.

'I don't have time to explain,' he said. 'We need to go! Now!'

Before either Maddy or Liam could say anything else, he took off down the street.

'What's he so scared of?' asked Liam curiously.

Maddy shrugged. 'I have no idea.'

'Should we go after him?'

'I don't think we have much of a choice. Come on, let's go.'

Five minutes later, four men arrived in the area where Maddy, Liam and Rashim had just departed. They were all dressed in black, white and grey combat outfits. They were wearing thick Kevlar helmets with small cameras mounted on the right hand side, large, thick goggles and metal gas masks. Stitched onto the left arm of their uniforms was a badge with the letters TTQF written on it. Lights were beaming out of the end of their M26 pulse rifles that they were panning around the area.

One of the men checked the map displayed on his wrist screen.

'We're getting close, sir,' he said. 'According to the map, the signal came from that alleyway.'

He pointed towards the alley where Maddy, Liam and Rashim had emerged from only minutes before.

'Copy that,' one of them replied. 'Spears, get your scanner ready.'

'Yes, sir.'

The four men slowly walked into the alley.

'Hall? Are you sure this is where the signal came from?'

'Yes, sir,' Hall replied. 'This is the place.'

'But there's nothing here!' he said. 'Apart from these blocks of concrete.'

'Sir?' said Spears. 'The scanner's picking up residue tachyon particles in the vicinity. It appears that this was actually someone arriving rather than someone leaving; which would explain why the signal was only visible for a few seconds. There are also particles coming from those blocks. It looks like they came with whoever arrived.'

'That's assuming someone actually arrived,' said one of the other men.

'Shut up, Billet!' said another.

Billet obediently resumed his stance.

The one who ordered Billet to be silent placed a finger to his earpiece.

'This is Corporal Matthews,' he said. 'I require a science team at my current location. There are residue tachyon particles in this area that need to be analysed.'

A pause. Then a reply came from the other end.

'Copy that, Corporal Matthews. We've locked onto your location. A team is being dispatched. They will be with you in approximately ten minutes.'

'Roger that,' he turned to face his men. 'Alright then, let's check to see if there are any fresh tracks on the ground. If someone did come through, we need to know where they've gone.'

The four men pressed a button on their goggles and then began scanning the ground.

'I've got something!' said Hall.

The other men ran over to join him.

Matthews could make out a number of footprints illuminated by his goggle's vision mode.

'I see them,' he said.

'These tracks are fresh alright,' Hall continued. 'They're less than ten minutes old. It seems that they appeared at around the same time as that portal. I think it's safe to assume that someone did come through.'

'Yes,' said Matthews while studying the tracks. 'There's more than one of them.'

'I count three,' said Spears.

'Yes,' said Hall. 'Judging by the size of the footprints, I'd estimate there are two males and one female.'

'They lead off towards the street,' said Matthews.

'What are your orders, sir?' asked Spears.

Matthews had a brief think and then came to a decision

'Billet?'

'Sir?'

'I want you to stay here and wait for the science team. Debrief them on what we found here and then await further instructions from me.'

'Understood, sir.'

Matthews turned to the other two.

'Spears, Hall, you're with me. We need to follow these tracks and find who came through this portal.'

'Yes, sir,' they both chorused.

'You both know the drill; weapons on stun. We want them alive.'

'Rashim…I'm…exhausted,' Maddy spluttered. 'I've gotta stop for a rest.'

She sat down on the ground, gasping for breath.

'Maddy, we can't stop!' said Rashim. 'We have to keep going!'

'Why?' asked Liam accusingly. 'You haven't told us why we're running yet.'

'I don't have time to explain it all. You have to trust me on this, we need to –'

'No!' interrupted Maddy. 'I'm sorry, Rashim. As much as I do trust you, I'm not going any further until you tell us why we're running for our lives.'

Rashim sighed. He quickly looked up and down the street one more time and then turned to face Maddy and Liam.

'After the international law banning time travel was passed in 2051,' he said, 'there were still people who were conducting experiments with time travel technologies and even attempting time travel itself. Because of this, the world leaders knew they needed a better way to enforce the law. So they secretly began work on plans to create an organisation that would police the use of time travel. This organisation first came into action in November 2055. They were called the TTQF; which stood for Time Travel Quarantine Force. They had satellites placed in orbit that could detect tachyon signals anywhere on the planet. It was amazingly high tech; all someone had to do was switch a displacement machine on and the satellites would detect it. The TTQF had units stationed in every country in the world. As soon as a signal was detected, a squad was dispatched to where the signal came from. Any people found there were arrested and their technology was confiscated. That's why the TTQF's existence wasn't announced to the world. They wanted to learn just how many people had access to time displacement equipment; which they wouldn't have been able to do if the whole world knew about them.

'What happened to the people they arrested?' Maddy asked.

'They were interrogated about where they got their technology from, how long they'd had it, whether they had conducted any experiments with it... you get the point,' he drew a breath. 'After the TTQF were forced to disband in 2064, it was discovered that all the people they had arrested over the years had been imprisoned after they were interrogated. This was so that they couldn't reveal to anyone else that the TTQF existed. This included people who had had no involvement with time travel at all. They were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. They were all released after that but some of them had been locked away in their prison for as long as eight years.'

Maddy raised her hand to her mouth.

'Oh my god!' she muttered. 'That's awful.'

'What about the time travel technology they confiscated?' Liam asked.

'That remains a mystery. They never revealed what they did with all the displacement machines and equipment they collected. Some people believed that they destroyed them. Others thought that they stored them away for future reference. Conspiracy nuts believed that they used them for time travel experiments themselves. But no one knows for certain.'

'Why were they forced to disband?' Liam asked.

'Originally, their existence was meant to be kept a secret. They did their best to hide from the public eye and they were rarely seen. Those who did see them assumed they were a branch of the army. However, in 2063, an internet blogger, by accident, stumbled upon one of their operations and he recorded the whole thing using a camera while hiding in the shadows. The footage showed them raiding a laboratory where a small group of scientists were testing a displacement machine they'd been developing. They were very brutal towards the scientists and eventually manhandled them into the back of a truck, which took them away. It was only when they brought the displacement equipment out of the laboratory that the blogger realised what was going on. He promptly posted the video on the internet and, from that moment, the whole world new about the TTQF. People were outraged at what they were doing as they felt it was a step too far in enforcing the time travel law. Violent protests erupted across the globe and, eventually, the world leaders had no choice but to disband the TTQF.'

'I see,' said Liam while nodding. 'But there is still one thing I don't understand. How does this affect us?'

'It's obvious, Liam,' said Maddy while standing up.

'How is it obvious?'

'Rashim said that they could detect tachyon signals anywhere on the planet. In which case, they will have detected us arriving.'

'Correct,' said Rashim sombrely.

'But we've covered a lot of distance from where we arrived,' said Liam. 'Surely we're out of danger now?'

'No, Liam,' said Rashim. 'They have state-of-the-art equipment. They've been able to track people across entire cities. The goggles they wear are equipped with a number of different vision modes. One of which allows them to see people's footprints.'

Maddy's face suddenly froze.

'So that means…' she uttered.

Rashim nodded.

'There's a squad probably following us right now. Which is why I didn't want us to stop, we've allowed them to catch up to us. If they capture us, we'll end up spending the next seven years in a prison cell.'

'We'd better get moving then!' said Liam urgently.

'But where do we go?' Maddy asked. 'If they're able to track us, then surely it doesn't matter where we go, they'll find us eventually'.

'I don't know,' said Rashim. 'But we need to –'

'YOU THERE! STAY WHERE YOU ARE!' a voice shouted.

They turned around to see three figures standing twenty yards up the road pointing rifles at them with lights pouring out the end.

They then turned back to face each other.

'RUN!'

'They're heading towards the alleys, sir!' said Hall.

Matthews cursed under his breath. These people clearly had knowledge of who they were as they'd reacted incredibly quickly. How though? All the people outside of the TTQF who knew about its existence were either dead or locked away; apart from one… This was a question that needed to be answered when these time travellers were being interrogated.'

'Get after them!' he said to his men. 'Switch to thermal vision!'

The three men pressed another button on their goggles and then began running towards the alleys.

'This is Matthews,' he said with his finger on his earpiece. 'We've located the time travellers who came through that portal that appeared near the old Holborn Viaduct. They're attempting to get away; we're in pursuit.'

'Copy that, Matthews,' said the reply. 'Continue pursuit and report back once you have the suspects in your custody.'

'Understood.'

Maddy, Liam and Rashim darted towards the nearest alleyway, knowing that they would be a much harder target in and amongst the nest of dark, twisting maze of alleys and backstreets than they would out on the main road. The only problem was, seeing as they were moving away from the main road, there was less light and, therefore, it was harder for them to see where they were going. Although there was light coming from the full moon, it wasn't enough for them to have perfect vision.

They soon realised that there was another problem. They had no idea where they were going. Although they were still in London, a city where they had been living for over five months, the 2057 version was an entirely different city from the one they'd left behind in 1889.

There was only one thing that they did know: they had to get away.

'Come on!' Maddy screamed. 'Move faster!'

'Well where are we going?!' Liam shouted in frustration.

'Away from here!' she replied.

'Maybe we should split up?' Rashim suggested. 'It would confuse them and it would be harder for them to find us.'

'Definitely not!' Maddy shouted, 'If we split up, we may not find each other again.'

'Well then what can we do?!' he asked.

'Keep running!'

Maddy screamed as a shot narrowly missed her head and hit the brickwork next to her. She quickly turned around; the TTQF soldiers were starting to gain on them.

They continued running for a few more minutes, taking every turn they could see so as to stay out of the line-of-sight of the soldiers. But then…

'Oh no!' shouted Maddy. 'We've run into a dead end!'

They looked around. The brick walls surrounding them were at least three stories high. There were fire escape balconies on the walls either side of them but they were too high off the ground. Even if they did manage to reach them, they'd be easy targets for the soldiers. The only way out was the way they had come in. But there was no way they'd be able to go back without running into the soldiers.

'FREEZE!' a voice commanded.

None of them moved.

'Turn around slowly!' said the voice.

They slowly swivelled round.

The soldiers had come into the alley and were slowly walking towards them. Their guns pointed directly at them, their lights blinding them.

'Hands in the air where I can see them!' ordered one of the soldiers.

They all did as they were told and exchanged glances with one another. They were all thinking the same thing.

 _NOW what do we do?_

 **1889, London**

Bob, Becks and Spongebubba stared at all the computer parts laid out in front of them.

They had spent the last half an hour disassembling the whole computer and had now removed every individual part so they could determine what was damaged and what wasn't.

The power was now back on. They had managed to solve that problem without much difficulty.

Between them, they had deduced that the best thing to do first would be to check the connections Rashim had made to the generator when they first arrived.

They had quickly located the conduit that led to the generator. Becks had crawled through, taking with her a small selection of tools and a torch. Bob and Spongebubba had heard the cries and screeches of rats coming from inside the conduit but Becks paid them no attention. Bob and Spongebubba waited anxiously and, after a few minutes, the lights flickered back on.

'She did it!' Spongebubba yelped with excitement.

'Yes she did, Spongebubba,' Bob agreed.

Becks soon emerged from the conduit, covered in dirt and rat droppings, and reported that the surge had caused the connections to come out of place. All she had to do was patch them back into the copper wiring and the power was restored.

With that issue now out of the way, they turned their attention to the computer.

They tried turning it on but the machine showed no sign of powering up. They then decided that they should take the computer apart and remove every single component. They knew that it could just be one small part that was faulty or it could be the whole thing. Either way, they needed to be absolutely certain.

Over, the next half an hour, the three of them worked to dismantle the computer and then laid out every single part on the archway floor.

Outside, the storm was still raging. The conditions had not changed much since Bob and Becks had come back inside after checking the roof. Although it was still heavily raining, the lightning strikes were now sounding further and further away. They all knew the worst of the storm had now passed so none of them gave it a second thought.

After the dismantling of the computer was complete, they stared at the mess of parts and components scattered across the floor and began to check each one individually.

Eventually, after the job was finished, they all looked at each other.

'It appears we have been very fortunate,' said Bob. 'The vast majority of the components are still intact.

'Affirmative,' said Becks. 'The few parts that have been damaged can be repaired. It will take time but it can be done.'

'Phew!' said Spongebubba.

'Recommendation,' said Bob. 'We should proceed immediately. The sooner we begin the work, the sooner we will be finished.'

'What do we do once we're done?' Spongebubba asked.

Bob and Becks exchanged a glance.

'For now, Spongebubba,' said Bob, 'we need to focus on the task at hand. We will worry about that when the time comes.'

 **2057, London**

Corporal Matthews stared at the three time travellers standing in front of him.

His first reaction was that they were dressed in very old fashioned clothes. They all had fairly long hair. The girl's was very frizzy. These were very strange people indeed.

He placed his finger to his earpiece.

'Billet? Do you copy?' he said.

'Standing by, sir,' came the reply.

'We've got 'em. They tried to get away but stupidly ran into a dead end. I'm gonna call in a transport truck to take them and us back to base. Head back there now. We'll see you in a few.'

'Roger that, sir.'

Matthews waited a moment, and then spoke again.

'This is Corporal Matthews. We have the suspects in custody. Requesting a transport truck to bring them back to base for questioning.'

Another pause.

'Copy that, Corporal Matthews,' came the reply. 'Take the suspects to the main road. The truck will pick you up there.'

'Roger that.'

He turned back to face the time travellers.

'Ok then,' he said to them, 'you three are going to make your way back to the main road. We'll only be a few steps behind you.'

The girl then spoke.

'Uh, I'm afraid we don't know the way to the –'

'SHUT UP!' Matthews barked at her.

She swiftly closed her mouth.

'I'll tell you where to go. Just keep your mouths shut and do as you're told. And don't think about running away.'

He patted his pulse rifle.

The girl's eyes widened in shock at the sight of it.

Matthews laughed. 'Don't worry little lady,' he said. 'These are set for stun. They won't kill you but they will knock you out for several hours and you'll wake up with a very bad headache. Have I made myself clear?'

The three of them nodded. The girl more vigorously than the other two.

'Good,' he said. 'Now then, I want you –'

Matthews was about to tell the time travellers to start walking when, suddenly, the world went dark.

Maddy, Liam and Rashim jumped back in surprise as the three men suddenly flopped to the ground in quick succession.

For a few seconds, none of them spoke. It was fairly clear that the men were dead but what had caused it? It looked like they had been shot but there had been no sounds of gunfire and there was no-one else standing further up the alley.

'Psst!' a voice said.

The three of them looked around to try and determine where the voice had come from.

'Up there!' said Rashim suddenly while pointing.

Maddy and Liam looked up.

They could see a figure crouched on the roof of the building to their right. He was holding, what appeared to be, a pistol with a silencer attached in his hand.

'Stay there!' he commanded.

He put the pistol away and hung one leg over the edge. He then did the same with the other leg, while gripping onto the surface of the roof. It looked as though he was going to drop down but, remarkably, he began to climb down.

Maddy, Liam and Rashim looked at each other in confusion. This man clearly had no climbing equipment and the brickwork didn't have any handholds or any loose surfaces he could grab onto yet he was steadily climbing down and showed no sign of struggling.

He then dropped onto the ground, pulled a torch out of a bag he had under his arm, snapped it on and made his way over to the three corpses.

He crouched down and reached for something mounted on the side of one of their helmets. He then pulled at it and, after a second, it came off. He then did the same with the other two.

He placed the items in his bag, removed a spray can and then walked over to Maddy, Liam and Rashim.

They studied the man in front of them. It was too dark for them to see his face but they could see he was wearing large boots, combat trousers, an old worn jacket and some kind of gloves on his hands. He knelt down in front of Maddy.

'Lift your leg up,' he said to her.

'I'm sorry?'

'Now!' he snapped.

She quickly did as he asked. He grabbed her ankle to keep her leg steady and then sprayed some of the contents of the can onto the bottom of her foot.

He let go of her ankle.

'And the other one,' he said.

She lifted up her other leg and he did the same on the other foot. He then proceeded to do the same with Rashim and Liam.

'What have you done that for?' Liam asked him.

'They won't be able to see your tracks. It's not permanent but it'll last for a good few hours,' he replied while standing up and putting the spray can away.

He faced the three of them.

'Look,' he said, 'I don't know who you people are and you don't know who I am. But the fact that you're running from the TTQF is enough evidence for me that we're on the same side. I realise that you have no reason to trust me right now. But, if you want to survive, you're going to have to. Another TTQF unit will be here soon. You can stay here and wait for them to find you, or you can come with me. The choice is yours to make but you'd better make it quickly. There isn't much time and I'm certainly not sticking around. So what's it gonna be?'

 **2057, TTQF Headquarters, Classified Location**

General Deckard studied the statistics in front of him.

The figures he was reading told him that the number of reported time travel incidents had decreased by five percent over the past year but it was still a lot higher than he wanted it to be. The Americans were the worst for it, followed by the Russians.

Deckard himself was American; but absolutely despised the use of time travel. He'd been outraged when that idiot Waldstein had created that first, so-called, time machine. Death machine was nearer the mark. After that however, Deckard thoroughly approved of all the work Waldstein had done to make the world realise the dangers of time travel. Deckard had been one of the biggest supporters of Waldstein's campaign and had breathed a huge sigh of relief when time travel became banned under international law. Deckard had been in charge of the TTQF since it had been instituted in 2055. He had accepted as soon as he was asked. He hadn't needed to think about it.

Deckard had been approached for the job because of his experience in this field of work. He had served in the army since he was a teenager and had been a Brigadier for twenty-five years until he was offered the role of General in the TTQF. Under his command, they had already busted over one-hundred-and-fifty wannabe time travellers; which was impressive considering the TTQF had only been in action for eighteen months.

 _BEEP!_

Deckard looked up from the notes he was reading.

A red light had come on above the door at the far end of the room. Indicating that someone had pressed the button outside his office door and was waiting for permission to enter. He pressed a button on his computer keyboard and the camera feed from outside his office came onto his screen. He recognised the man standing outside the door as his deputy, Colonel Crawford. He was holding a file under one arm. That meant he had information. Deckard pressed a button on his desk, the door slid to one side and Crawford walked in.

He stood in front of the General's desk.

'General Deckard, sir!' he said while offering a crisp salute.

'Good day, Colonel,' said Deckard. 'What news do you have for me?'

'It's about that incident in London, sir,' said Crawford.

'Ah yes, I remember. Wasn't there a signal that appeared for only a few seconds?'

'Yes, sir. We sent a small squad of soldiers to the area where we detected the signal. But, strangely, the signal came from an old alleyway. And there was nothing there apart from a few blocks of concrete.'

Deckard pulled a face. 'Odd.'

'However, one of the soldier's scanners picked up residue tachyon particles in the vicinity and they were also resonating from the blocks. They determined that the signal we detected was someone arriving. The men also found tracks on the ground that they estimated appeared at around the same as the signal. They identified three different sets of tracks and they all went in the same direction. Which indicates it's a group of people who came through.'

'Did the soldiers find them?'

'Yes, sir. But it gets a bit odd.'

'What do you mean, Colonel?' Deckard asked curiously.

'They followed the tracks and then saw three people standing talking and the footprints led straight to them. The soldiers ordered them to remain where they were but, instead, they immediately ran away. These people clearly had knowledge of the TTQF as they reacted with amazing speed.'

'Well then they must be from the future!' said Deckard. 'How else could they know about us?'

Crawford swallowed nervously.

'Actually, sir, I'm not sure that's the case.'

Deckard's face narrowed. 'What do you mean?'

'I'll…come to that in a minute, sir. Anyway, the soldiers set off after them but then something strange happened.'

Crawford reached into his trouser pocket and pulled out a small data stick.

'May I, sir?' he asked, gesturing at the General's computer.

'Yes, please do,' Deckard replied.

Crawford walked round to the other side of the desk, plugged the stick in and selected a video file.

'This is the footage from the Corporal's on-board camera.'

He played the clip.

Deckard saw three people appear on the screen. They were twenty yards away and he couldn't see them clearly but he could make out that two of them were male and one of them female. The men both had long black hair and the girl's was a frizzy strawberry-blonde colour. He also noticed they were wearing peculiar clothes. They were talking to each other and hadn't yet noticed the soldiers.

' _Is that them, sir?'_ he heard one of the men whisper to the Corporal.

' _Yes I think so, Spears. The tracks lead to where they're standing so I think we can assume those are the people we're after.'_

There was a few seconds silence and then the Corporal called out to them.

' _YOU THERE! STAY WHERE YOU ARE!'_

The three people span round to face the soldiers and then immediately turned back to face each other.

' _RUN!'_ the girl shouted and the three of them quickly started running away. Crawford was right, they had reacted very quickly.

' _They're heading towards the alleys, sir!'_ one of the men shouted.

There was a brief pause.

' _Get after them! Switch to thermal vision.'_

The men then started running and Deckard heard the Corporal speak again.

' _This is Matthews. We've located the time travellers who came through that portal that appeared near the old Holborn Viaduct. They're attempting to get away; we're in pursuit.'_

The men then ran towards the alleys. But, at that moment, the screen went blank and Deckard could only hear static. Crawford then stopped the clip.

'We've checked and the same thing happened on the other two men's cameras as well. Something was interfering with the signal between their cameras and our servers. The cameras themselves were probably still working. We know it wasn't an EMP as their comms systems were still fully functioning. They reported a few minutes later that the suspects were in custody and requested a transport truck to take them back to the London base.'

'I see,' said Deckard. 'Have they been interrogated yet?'

'No, sir. Because we no longer have them in custody.'

'I beg your pardon, Colonel?!' Deckard asked angrily.

'The transport truck arrived at the designated location but the soldiers weren't there waiting as they'd been instructed to. So, the driver of the truck followed the soldier's tracks and found them in one of the alleys, lying on the ground with bullets in their necks.'

Deckard's eyes widened in surprise.

'What about the suspects?'

'There was no sign of them anywhere.'

'Did the driver managed to collect the soldier's cameras?'

'No, sir. They'd all been removed. The driver also checked for tracks but the only ones he could see were the ones of the suspects and the soldiers coming into the alley.'

Deckard slammed his fists onto the desk in frustration.

'They've obviously come into contact with that scientist we've been searching for. He must have triggered some sort of pulse that blocked the camera's signals. He's been known to use strange science-type gizmos like that in the past hasn't he?'

'Yes, sir. He has,' said Crawford. 'I think he must have also given whatever he uses to mask his tracks to those suspects as well.'

Deckard sighed. 'What about the tachyon particles in the area where the suspects arrived?'

'Well, sir, a science team examined the particles in the vicinity and they determined that these people actually came from the past rather than the future.'

Deckard was surprised. 'The past?'

'Yes, sir.'

'When in the past?'

'Well, sir… the only clue we have to that is the concrete blocks that came through the portal. The science team studied them to determine when they were made and, although they weren't able to pinpoint the exact year, they estimate that the blocks were made some time in the…1800s.

Deckard's jaw hung open. 'But…surely…that's…impossible,' he muttered.

'The scientists checked and double checked their equipment,' said Crawford. 'There definitely weren't any faults.'

'This doesn't make any sense!' Deckard yelled. 'Time travel was just a wild fantasy back then. How could three people from the 1800s have access to a working time displacement machine?!'

'I don't know, sir. It could be that these people _are_ from the future and they have a base set up in the 1800s.'

'Yes, Colonel,' Deckard nodded in agreement. 'That is a possibility.'

Crawford placed the file on the General's desk.

'All the information is in that file.'

'Thank you.'

'Should I issue an order to the London base regarding these suspects, sir?'

'Yes.' said Deckard. 'I want you to salvage the best picture you can of the suspects from that video clip and send it to the London base. Inform them that finding these three is now their top priority. In fact, make it a Priority One Order.'

'Yes, sir. What about that scientist?'

'I'm not bothered about him anymore. If they find him, they can kill him. But those three must be captured alive at all costs.'

'Understood, sir'.

Crawford collected his data stick and made his way toward the door.

'And, Crawford?' Deckard called out.

He turned back to face the General. 'Yes, sir?'

'Tell them once they've arrested the suspects, they are to inform me. I will fly out to London and question them myself.'

Crawford was surprised 'Uh… yes… of course, sir.'

He then walked over to the door; Deckard once again pressed the button on his desk, the door slid open and Crawford stepped out.

Deckard's mind was still spinning.

 _1800s?_

Deckard was now very eager to question these three time travellers.

Very eager indeed.

 **2057, London**

'How much further?' Maddy asked.

'We're nearly there,' the man replied. 'About another minute.'

They had been running for the past half-an-hour. Maddy, Liam and Rashim had been following the mysterious man through the darkened London streets without having a clue where it was he was taking them. They had wondered whether or not following him was a good idea. They had seen him kill three men and he did not seem in the slightest bit bothered by it. But, then again, he had saved their lives. He hadn't said very much since they had left the alley where they had met him but Maddy had detected an English accent in his voice.

Eventually, they found themselves wondering through the alleys yet again. Liam had seen signs for Ray Street, Herbal Hill and Eyre Street Hill since this man had rescued them. He had a rough idea of where they were in London. Somewhere north-west of the Holborn Viaduct. They stopped outside a small building. It was only one storey high and had a shutter for a door. The man lifted the shutter up and gestured for Maddy, Liam and Rashim to go inside. They quickly stepped into the dark space. The man followed them in and then closed the shutter.

'One second,' they heard the man say. 'Let me just find the light switch.'

After a few seconds, they heard a click and some strip lights above their heads snapped on.

They looked around.

Their first impression was that it was very small. They estimated this 'bunker' they were standing was approximately eight feet long and twelve feet wide. Opposite them was a desk with, what appeared to be, several large computer monitors. To their right was a brick wall and to their left on the other side of the bunker were two bunk beds and three small chairs.

Maddy and Liam exchanged a glance. It reminded them of their old archway. The only things missing were a large Perspex cylinder and a back room containing support unit foetuses. However, unlike their archway, the ceiling was very low.

 _Bob wouldn't be able to stand up if he came in here,_ Maddy thought to herself.

'Please sit down,' The man said to them while gesturing at the chairs.

Maddy, Liam and Rashim gratefully slumped down into the chairs. It felt like they hadn't stopped running since they'd arrived in 2057.

Under better light, they could now see the man was wearing a woolly hat and a cloth mask was covering his nose and mouth.

He placed his bag on the bottom bunk and then removed his jacket to reveal a plain grey t-shirt underneath. He then took off his hat, mask and gloves and, along with his jacket, placed them on the top bunk.

Maddy, Liam and Rashim could now see he was a fairly thin man in his early thirties with short cut black hair.

He then sat down on the bottom bunk.

'Are you people ok?' He asked them.

'Yeah,' Maddy replied. 'We're fine'.

He briefly studied the three of them and then his eyes widened in surprise.

'What happened to your hand?' He asked Rashim.

Rashim looked down. There was a small red patch on the back of his left hand. The spark that had landed on his hand during the incident that brought them to 2057 had left its mark.

'Electrical spark hit it,' Rashim replied.

'Hold on, I've got bandages,' the man said while standing up. He walked over to the desk and opened one of the drawers. He rummaged around and produced a bandage which he handed to Rashim and then sat back down.

'I…don't really know where to start,' he said. 'Maybe it would be best if we did introductions first. I'm John. John Stone. What are your names?'

Maddy nodded 'Nice to meet you Mr. Stone. My name's Maddy; that's Liam and that's Rashim.'

Liam and Rashim both politely nodded.

'Ok,' said John. 'So when have you guys come from?'

They all glanced at each other. 'You may find this hard to believe Mr. Stone,' said Maddy, 'but we've come from 1889.'

He looked shocked. 'Are you serious?!' he asked in disbelief.

'Yes. We have come here from 1889.'

'But…but…but… how?'

'How did three people from 1889 get their hands on a time displacement machine?' Liam offered.

John nodded.

'We're part of that agency,' said Liam.

'Agency?'

'Yeah you know? Waldstein's agency?'

'Sorry, I've never heard of that.'

'Of course!' said Rashim.

They all turned to look at him.

'Waldstein first set up the agency in 2055. Only two years ago. People didn't start hearing rumours of it until a fair bit later. No wonder he hasn't heard of it.'

'What do you mean by "agency"?' John asked. 'I thought Waldstein was against time travel.'

'He is,' said Maddy. 'He set up this agency as a, sort of, back-up. Whenever time contamination occurs, we go to the source of it and try to solve it.'

'I understand,' said John. 'If you don't mind me asking, why 1889?'

'Well we were based in New York in 2001 originally,' said Maddy, 'We were there for, roughly, six months but we were forced to go on the run which meant we had to find a new base and we eventually settled on London, 1888. And we've been there now for about five months.'

'Ah ok. So why did you come to 2057?'

'Well we didn't actually come here intentionally.'

Maddy proceeded to give him a brief summary of the events that had resulted in them being transported to 2057; followed by what happened before he saved them.

'I see,' John said while nodding. He then turned to Rashim. 'How did you know about the TTQF?'

'I'm from 2069.'

'Oh, really?' He looked surprised.

'Yes. The world finds out about the TTQF in 2063 and they disband the following year.'

'Good! I'm glad to hear it. Tell me, do you know what happens to all the people they arrest?'

'Yes. First, they're interrogated and then they're imprisoned.'

'What?! Why?'

'So they can't blab about the TTQF's existence. They're all released after the TTQF disband.'

He closed his eyes and sighed. It almost looked like a sigh of relief.

'Are you ok?' Maddy asked him.

'Yeah, I'm fine. So does this mean your base is now unmanned?'

'No,' said Maddy. 'There are two support units there and Rashim's lab unit.'

'Support units?'

'Genetically modified combat units.'

'Oh, I know what you mean. Yeah I've heard rumours of them being tested by the military. The TTQF don't use them. Their General believes they're too unpredictable and that there's a chance they could turn on the soldiers.'

'How do you know so much about the TTQF if you don't mind me asking?' asked Rashim.

A small grin slowly spread across his face. 'Because I've managed to hack into their mainframe.'

Rashim's jaw hung open. 'How? They're a top government organisation. They'll have one of the most secure mainframes in the world.'

'Before I was forced to spend my life living on the street I was one of the top computer scientists in the country,' said John. 'But, unbeknownst to most, I also have moderate hacking skills. Hacking into it wasn't as hard as you might think.'

'What do you mean?' Maddy asked.

'What Rashim said is true; they are a top government organisation. But because their existence wasn't announced to the world, they figured that, if no one knew about them, why bother with expensive mainframe security? If no one knows they exist, no one will try to hack into their mainframe. I can now see messages that go between the different TTQF bases, I'm tuned into their tachyon detection network, which is how I found you tonight, I'm able to see the locations of where they store the time displacement equipment they collect and –'

'Sorry let me just interrupt you there,' said Rashim. 'You said the locations of where they store the time displacement equipment they collect?'

'Yes. Don't you know about that?'

'No. That's the one thing about the TTQF that's kept a secret after they disband.'

'Oh right,' John looked surprised. 'Well what they do is they take them to the nearest base for analysing and then, after a few days, they store them away in a separate building in case they need to refer to them in the future.'

'Where do they store them?' asked Liam.

'Abandoned warehouses normally. They don't store them in their bases; mainly because they don't have a great deal of storage space in them. That may sound stupid but they don't use large bases as they don't want to attract unwanted attention. If people see small buildings with occasional trucks and soldiers coming out will assume it's just an army outpost. If they see something grander then they may start to ask questions.'

'So, is there a storage building in London?'

'Yes. It's near the River Thames. Close to what used to be the Mermaid Conference and Event Centre. A fair walk from here.'

'So, is there anything you're _not_ able to see from hacking into their mainframe?' Maddy asked.

'Yeah, there are a few things.'

'Like what?'

'Well, for example, I don't know the location of their headquarters, I wasn't able to learn what they did with all the people they arrested, which is why I asked you that just now, and a few other things. Those are all classified files. They can only be viewed by the highest ranking TTQF officials.'

'May I ask you a question, Mr. Stone?' said Liam.

'Yeah sure. And please call me John.'

'Ok, John. If the TTQF are supposed to be a top secret organisation that no one knows exists, how did _you_ first find out about them?'

He sighed. For a few moments he stared at the floor. But then he finally answered.

'The easiest way for me to answer that is if I tell you all a bit about myself. This might help enlighten things a bit.'

'As I mentioned just now,' John began, 'I used to be a computer scientist. I didn't work on my own though. I was in a team. There were five of us: Gemma, Kerrie, Gavin, Mike and myself. We all met at Cambridge University where we were studying. After graduating, we set up our own lab and began to work on our own experiments. Our lab was a small building near Southwark Cathedral here in London. We became one of the best science teams in Europe. We entered many different science fairs and events, where the teams had to design different inventions and other strange contraptions in a short period of time. The creations were then judged and we often emerged victorious. We became very well known. We did scientific demonstrations at different universities across Europe. After a while, word of our work began to spread and, eventually, we were invited to do demonstrations in America. Although we enjoyed it, it got too tiring; travelling all the time. So we decided to stop giving demonstrations and exclusively work in our lab.'

He paused.

'After spending three years designing and developing many different science gizmos, we made a decision that would change our lives. We decided we wanted to go for that holy grail of scientific invention. We wanted build our own time displacement machine. We were unsure at first as we were well aware of the international law banning the use of time travel. We thought as long as we never used the machine then it wouldn't be a problem.'

'Why build it then?' asked Liam, confused.

He shrugged. 'So we could say "we've built a working time machine" to all our friends I suppose.'

'So how did you go about building it?' asked Rashim.

'First we had to decide on the design of the machine. Then we had to determine exactly what components we would need, where we could find them and then we had to put them all together. Getting the components was the hardest part of the job. Now that the international law had been passed, people weren't willing to sell them as they were too afraid. Some of the components we were able to build ourselves; but we had to get the majority of them through black market dealers. It took six months to get all the parts we needed but we were finally ready to begin construction. All in all, that side of it went quite well. We did suffer the occasional setback here and there. It took us about eight months to build the whole thing. I'll always remember the date we finished it: the first of December 2055. That evening we thought we'd run a quick test. We decided we wouldn't risk trying to send anyone or anything through time. We thought it would be safer if we just turned it on; so as to check that it was actually working.'

He drew a breath.

'When we first hit the switch, nothing happened. But then after a few seconds, we heard a humming sound which slowly grew louder, the display screen lit up, it was working! We were so excited; we were jumping up and down, we were screaming and shouting. We couldn't believe it. This was early evening and we decided we'd buy a takeaway meal and have it in the lab so we could admire our handiwork for a bit longer before we went home.'

'Where did you live?' asked Maddy.

'In a block of flats near the London College of Communication. We used the underground to get to and from our lab.'

'Were you all living in one flat?' asked Liam.

'No. Gavin, Mike and I were sharing one; Kerrie and Gemma were sharing another.'

He paused.

'Anyway, Gavin and I were nominated to go out and get the meal. We walked to the local takeaway, got what we were after and then made our way back to the lab. As we came up to it, we noticed there was, what looked to be, an army truck parked outside. We also noticed that there were two people standing by the building entrance. They were dressed in some kind of soldier's uniform which made us curious as we assumed they were the army. We were about to go and ask them what they were doing there when another soldier stepped out of the front door. Behind him were three people whose hands were cuffed behind their backs. To our horror, we realised it was Gemma, Kerrie and Mike. We wanted to go over and help them but we knew we'd either get shot or captured as well. So we hid out of sight and could only watch. The three of them climbed in to the back of the truck and two more soldiers emerged from the building. All the soldiers then started talking to each other. We couldn't hear exactly what they were saying but, from what we could hear, it was clear they were after Gavin and me as well but the others wouldn't tell them where we'd gone. The soldiers assumed we'd gone back to our flat and they decided they'd go there next.'

'Couldn't they just look for your tracks?' asked Maddy.

'No, they hadn't developed that vision mode yet; thankfully.'

'So what happened next?' asked Liam.

'They got into the truck and left. Gavin wanted to go and check the lab but my instincts told me that they were going to come back. And I was right. Five minutes later, a large lorry pulled up and several of these soldiers got out. They then went into the lab. After a few minutes, they came out. They were carrying a large piece of heavy equipment and we were absolutely outraged to discover it was our time displacement machine. Our pride and joy, which we had worked on for fourteen months, was being taken away from us! We were absolutely heartbroken. They loaded it into the lorry and they drove away. We waited another hour before we went inside just to be certain they weren't going to come back again. During that time, we had a think about what we were going to do next. We knew going back to our apartment was out of the question and we equally knew we couldn't stay in the lab. Mike's parents, and most of our friends, lived in London but we couldn't risk going to see any of them. Just in case they were being watched by these people, whoever they were. We decided we should find a new place to live first and then work it out from there. We then went into the lab and quickly grabbed what we could. As we sometimes spent nights in the lab, there were some camp-beds there so we took two of those, a few assorted bits of food, some medical supplies and we also decided to take some of the devices we'd invented. Just in case we ever found a use for them. Once we were happy we had everything we were going to need, we started walking. We didn't have the foggiest idea where we were going. But we knew it would be safest to get as far away from that area of London as possible. We walked for hours. We decided our best option would be to walk to the other side of the river but after that we just aimlessly wandered around looking for somewhere that would be suitable for us to inhabit. Eventually, we found this old bunker you're sitting in right now. With the exception of the strip lights above your heads, this place was completely empty when we found it. My guess is it was once used for storage. We knew we'd be safe here because hardly anyone lives in this area of London so we figured these people were less likely to look for us here. After a few days, we managed to track down one of the black market dealers who we'd met while we were gathering the components for our displacement machine. We must have got about forty percent of the parts from him and he'd become something of a friend to us. We explained our predicament to him and he agreed to provide us with some items to repay us for being such good customers. He gave us the bunk beds and the chairs for free but I had to pay him for the desk and the computer stuff. We've also done dealings with him for other items since then. He additionally promised he wouldn't tell anyone where we were. After that we had to live a very reclusive life. We only went out at night and had to go to clubs and bars to eat and drink. Although that side of things could have been better, we were actually ok for money as we had earned a lot from all the demonstrations we had done and we weren't big spenders so we still had several thousand pounds worth of cash on us. So, all in all, it could've been a lot worse.'

He paused.

'After we got our hands on the computer, we tried to get a better idea of the people who were after us. Gavin remembered seeing a badge on one of the soldier's uniforms with TTQF written on it. I put those letters into a search engine and nothing relevant came up. So I put my supreme computer skills to use and trawled through the vast world of cyberspace until I stumbled upon a government file that looked to have the information we were after. It gave details of an organisation that had recently been put into action to police the use of time travel and then we understood why they were after us. I did a bit more trawling and, after a while, I had managed to hack into their mainframe and I learnt a lot more about them.'

'Did you ever run into them again?' asked Rashim.

'Once or twice but we made sure that we were ready for them.'

'What do you mean?'

'From hacking into the mainframe, we were able to see the different equipment they were using so we knew what we could expect. One of the things we noticed was that they were developing a new vision mode that could highlight people's footprints and would obviously give them a huge advantage when they were pursuing someone.'

He reached into his bag and removed the spray can.

'When we learned of that, Gavin developed this,' He said while holding the can up. 'It contains a special formula that prevents them from being able to see your footprints. It lasts for a few hours which is good because that vision mode isn't able to see tracks that have been down for longer than an hour anyway. The first time we ran into them, it was just two soldiers. We were able to beat them unconscious and we stole their side arms. This meant we now had proper weapons.'

'Did any of the devices you'd invented come in handy?' asked Liam.

'Yes,' He reached into his bag again and removed a small silver tube with a red button on top and he also picked up the gloves he'd been wearing earlier. 'These gloves are laced with a special type of fibre that allows them to stick to solid surfaces; which means you can use them to climb up and down walls.'

'So that's how you climbed down the wall when you rescued us!' said Liam.

'Yes. I also used this tonight,' He said while holding the tube up. 'When you press the button, it triggers a pulse that blocks the signal that goes between the soldier's helmet cameras and the servers in their headquarters; it has a quarter-of-a-mile radius. It means they won't know exactly what the three of you look like and therefore it'll be harder for them to identify you if you see them again.'

'Would your device have disabled the camera's themselves?' asked Rashim.

'No. That's why I removed them from the soldier's helmets before we left, so they couldn't manually extract the footage.'

'Sorry to keep asking you all these questions,' said Maddy. 'But there's one thing that has been bugging me: why exactly did you save us?'

He drew a breath. 'After Kerrie, Gemma and Mike were captured, Gavin and I decided we would do our best to prevent others from suffering the same fate when and where we could. There were never many tachyon signals in London. The few we did see were clearly people conducting time travel experiments in some way, like we did, but they were always on the other side of the city so there was nothing we could do for them.

He paused. 'Earlier tonight, I'd not long got back from the bar and I was on the computer when I saw a tachyon signal had just appeared in London and it wasn't too far from here; near the old Holborn Viaduct. This signal was different to the others. It looked like this one was someone arriving. So I put the location into my data pad, grabbed a few things and I left straight away. After about ten minutes, I realised I probably wasn't going to make it in time so I climbed up on top of one of the buildings, hoping to get a better view with my binoculars when I saw the three of you running. You were about half a mile away. I instantly knew that the signal was someone arriving and that you were the ones who had come through. I knew by the clothes you were wearing and I also knew that the only people from 2057 who would be out at that time of night are people who are either drunk or drug addicts. You were heading in my direction so I decided I'd try and intercept you. I lost sight of you for a minute or two, when I next saw you, you were talking to each other and I could see three TTQF soldiers coming up behind you. I didn't call out to warn you as I would've given away my position and the soldiers would've got the lot of us. At that point, I thought they had you but then you took off very quickly. As the soldiers started to chase you into the alley, I triggered the blocker and quickly made my way to street level. I then ran into the alley behind them but I was careful to be close enough to see where they were going but far enough that they couldn't hear me. They turned a corner and then I heard one of them shout 'freeze!' and at that point, I knew they'd cornered you. So I climbed up on top of the nearest building and walked along the roof. I could see them pointing their rifles at you and I realised there was only one way I could get you out of there. So I pulled the sidearm out of my bag, attached the silencer and… well you know the rest.'

Rashim noticed what appeared to be a twinge of regret in his voice. It appeared as though John was not the ruthless killer they initially thought he was.

'Do you mind if I ask one more question?' Liam asked tentatively.

'Not at all; What is it?'

'You said you escaped from the TTQF with your friend Gavin. Where is he now?'

John looked at the ground and then sighed once again.

 **14** **th** **June, 2056, London**

The two men emerged from the club in Bloomsbury Street at just gone half past midnight.

'Man, that barman was in a bad mood,' one said to the other.

'That's an understatement.'

'When I asked for my drink, he seemed to treat it like a personal insult.'

They both laughed.

They walked past the British Museum. There were rumours circulating around that it was going to be closed down soon and that many of the artefacts were going to be auctioned off. It didn't seem likely though. They walked on in silence for a few minutes until one of them spoke again.

'Look, John I've been thinking.'

John turned to face him. 'About what?'

'The situation we're in. We can't keep living like this. It's been six months now.'

'Yeah I've been thinking the same thing but what choice do we have?'

'I know we can't go to see anyone we know but there is one option we haven't considered yet.'

'What's that?'

'We could leave London.'

John pondered the thought for a moment.

'No, Gav. I don't think we can do that.'

'Why not?' asked Gavin.

'Because you've read those files we found. We both know how powerful the TTQF are. They'll be monitoring all the transportation networks and watching for us. I would love to leave London but I think it's too risky.'

'No, they wouldn't risk trying to grab us in a public place. They'd reveal their existence by doing that.'

'True. But what they could do is monitor where we go and then grab us once we've arrived at our destination.'

Gavin sighed. 'Yeah I suppose you're right. I'm just sick and tired of living like a tramp.'

'I know, Gav,' said John solemnly. 'I am too but we don't really have any other option. Unless we get a miracle, I'm afraid we're stuck where we are.'

'Well, they say miracles do happen.'

John smiled. 'You're always the optimist aren't you?'

Gavin shrugged. 'There's nothing wrong with that.'

They both laughed again.

John continued to think about what Gavin had suggested as they carried on walking. It's true that leaving London entirely is one option that they had not considered but it was still risky. They were safe where they were. They had had occasional run-ins with the TTQF but they had been able to evade them. But he knew they couldn't hide from them forever. They would have to do something or the TTQF would certainly find them eventually. John was still deep in his thoughts when Gavin suddenly called out and pointed.

'What's that?'

John squinted his eyes. 'It looks like headlights.'

'It can't be! You never see vehicles driving around at this hour.'

'You're right. Unless…'

John turned to face Gavin. They were both thinking the same thing.

 _Unless it's them._

They both remained completely still. The lights were slowly getting brighter; which meant the vehicle was getting closer. As it got nearer, it became clear that this was a large vehicle; definitely not an e-Car.

'I think it's them,' said Gavin. 'We'd better run.'

'One moment,' said John. 'We don't know that for certain.'

The vehicle drew closer. John noticed that Gavin was very slowly starting to back away. They'd already sprayed their feet with the special spray Gavin had designed, as they did every night they went out. Meaning that, if it was them, they'd both be able to run away and not worry about being followed by them.

The vehicle was now only one-hundred yards away. At that distance, John could see now that it bore a striking resemblance to the transport trucks used by the TTQF. The truck then suddenly stopped fifty yards away from where they were standing. John instinctively put his hand to his inside jacket pocket. The side arm he had stolen from a TTQF soldier was still there. It looked like he was going to need it.

'They've seen us,' whispered Gavin. 'I really think we should go.'

'Yeah,' said John. 'I think you're right.'

They started walking in the opposite direction when they heard a voice shout out to them.

'YOU TWO! STAY RIGHT THERE!'

 _Oh crap. It's them!_

John turned to face Gavin.

'Run!' he said.

They instantly bolted and heard the voice call out again.

'HEY! I SAID STAY THERE!'

They ignored the voice and carried on running.

After five minutes, John was fairly sure that they had covered enough distance to be out of danger.

'Are they following us?' he asked.

No answer.

'Gavin?'

John stopped running and turned around.

Gavin was nowhere in sight.

John realised that the two of them must have gone in different directions when they started running. John had presumed that Gavin was behind him.

His first instinct was go back to the bunker; that's where Gavin would go if he'd escaped. But he didn't know for certain whether or not Gavin had successfully eluded the soldiers. After a minute of thinking, John decided the best course of action would be to have a brief look around for Gavin before going back to the bunker.

So he headed back the way he had come, moving slowly and looking all around in case there were any TTQF soldiers wandering around.

'GET YOUR HANDS OFF ME!'

John heard the voice call out from somewhere in the distance. He quickly hurried in the direction it had come from. After a minute he looked down the street and saw the TTQF truck parked on the right hand side of the road. Behind it were two TTQF soldiers with a figure standing between them with his hands behind his back, staring at another soldier who was in front of him. He got closer so he could hear what they were saying. As he got closer, he recognised the figure.

Gavin.

John realised that Gavin must have also noticed that they had been separated and had decided to look for him. But it appears he had been less fortunate. John noticed there was a large bruise around his left eye.

'I've got all night,' said the soldier standing in front of Gavin. 'You might as well talk.'

'I'm not telling you anything!' Gavin yelled at him.

The soldier jabbed the butt of his rifle into Gavin's stomach.

'I'm getting tired of asking.'

'Screw you!'

Gavin was hit in the stomach again and this time he collapsed to his knees.

'This is the last time I'm gonna ask; where is he?!'

John realised they must be talking about him.

'I don't know where he is. Even if I did I wouldn't tell you!'

The soldier punched Gavin across the face.

 _I can't watch this!_

John reached into his pocket and removed the sidearm. He hadn't had any practice with it but he'd read the TTQF file on how to use it.

'You wanna do this the hard way then? No problem.'

He turned to the soldier on Gavin's left. 'Knock him out.'

The soldier aimed his rifle at Gavin's head and fired. There was a brief flash of blue light and Gavin keeled over to one side.

John nearly yelled out in horror but reminded himself that Gavin was only unconscious. He hurried to attach the silencer to the sidearm. He'd be able to carry Gavin back to the bunker.

'Get him in the truck and let's get out of here,' said the soldier who had been interrogating Gavin. 'If we stay here much longer someone's gonna see us.'

One of the soldiers lifted Gavin up onto his shoulders.

John firmly attached the silencer and aimed it at the soldier who had beat Gavin up.

He pulled the trigger.

Nothing.

He checked the gun and realised he hadn't cocked the barrel. He grabbed the top of the gun and pulled it back. He heard a click and pointed it back towards the soldiers.

But he was too late.

The soldier carrying Gavin had got in the back of the truck and the other two had got in the front.

John could only watch as the truck carrying the only friend he had left slowly pulled away into the night.

 **2057, London**

'If I'd been smart enough to practice more with that gun, I could have saved him and he'd be here now. Instead, I've been living like this on my own for almost a year.' John finished explaining.

Maddy, Liam and Rashim had remained completely quiet and patiently listened while John told his story.

'John,' said Maddy sympathetically. 'You can't blame yourself. There was nothing you could have done. There were three of them and only one of you; and they had bigger guns. If you'd shot one of them, they would have either captured you as well or they would have killed you.'

John sighed. 'Yeah I suppose you're right. It's just that… living this lifestyle has put me on the verge of madness but you guys have actually helped me.'

'We have?' Maddy asked, surprised.

'Yes. I have lived for the past seventeen months in this dump, eleven of them on my own, wondering whether or not my friends are alive. And thanks to you, I now know they are. But, equally, I know the odds are I'll never see them again. It'll be another… when did you say the TTQF prisoners were released?'

'2064,' said Rashim. 'Seventh of March if I remember correctly.'

'Another six years and ten months before they see freedom. Where exactly is the prison they're being held in? And would they all be in the same prison?'

'I'm certain that all the people the TTQF arrested were held in the same prison. And I think the prison is in Indiana.'

'In America?!'

'Yes.'

'You've gotta be joking!' said John. 'So now I know I'm never going to see them again.'

'How do you know?' asked Liam.

'Even if I manage to live until then without being captured by the TTQF, I won't have enough money by then to afford a plane or boat journey to America. So it looks like I'm stuck in this stink hole for the rest of my life.'

He buried his head in his hands. 'I'd give anything to be with them again.'

He slowly lifted his head up. 'Anyway, what about you guys? Have you given any thought as to how you're going to get back to your base?'

The three of them looked at each other. 'No,' said Maddy. 'Not really.'

'Actually, 'said Liam, 'I have. I was thinking of it just now.'

'What have you thought of?' asked Maddy.

'Well, I was thinking we could possibly try and get into that warehouse the TTQF have in London and –'

'You'll never get into the warehouse,' John interrupted. 'The doors won't open unless the scanners are shown a key card held by the TTQF soldiers.'

'Look, let's just say, for argument's sake, we manage to get into the warehouse. Could we use one of the time displacement machines they've stored to send us back?'

'No. After the machines are examined, the scientists remove all the key components that enable them to transport anything through time.'

'Well, could they still be used to beam messages back and forth through time?' asked Maddy.

John thought for a moment. 'Yes I suppose they could but what use is that?'

'We could use one of the machines to send a message back to the support units in our base and then they could open a portal inside the warehouse.'

'That's assuming they're able to,' said Rashim.

'What do you mean?'

'Maddy, you seem to have forgotten that our computer system was hit by a power surge. There's a high probability that it's been damaged as a result.'

'Well Bob and Becks are smart. If there is damage then they'll work to repair it as soon as possible won't they?'

'Yes they will but there is a possibility that the surge has damaged the computer system beyond repair.'

'I know. Look, Rashim, I think we're going to have to work on the assumption that Bob, Becks and Spongebubba have managed to fix any damage the surge may have caused.'

'Spongebubba?' John asked.

Rashim ignored him. 'That's a pretty big assumption, Maddy.'

'Yes it is but this could be our only shot at getting home.' She turned to face John. 'Do you think you could get us into that warehouse?'

He shrugged. 'Maybe. But why would I? What's in it for me?'

'You can come with us and –'

'And what? Live with you lot in 1889?'

'No. We can save you a six year and ten month wait.'

His eye's widened.

'We have a working time displacement machine in our base. We can send you to Indiana on the seventh of March 2064. Provided you can get us into that warehouse and can help us use one of the displacement machines to contact our base.'

'You would do that for me?'

Maddy shrugged. 'You saved our lives. It's the least we can do.'

He eyed the three of them for a few seconds. 'Alright then. It looks like we have a deal.'

 **1889, London**

Bob, Becks and Spongebubba admired their handiwork.

They had spent three hours working to repair the components that had been damaged by the power surge and then it took another half an hour to reassemble the whole computer. Bob then pressed the button and the machine powered up immediately. They additionally checked the displacement machine and, luckily, it didn't appear to be damaged.

'We have done a good job,' said Bob, proudly. 'Maddy, Liam and Rashim would be proud of us.'

'Yes they would,' said Becks.

'Yay!' cheered Spongebubba.

'Now,' said Bob. 'We have more pressing matters to attend to.'

He walked over to the computer. 'Computer-bob? Are you there?'

 **Yes Bob. I am here.**

'We require assistance. Something terrible has happened.'

 **Is this to do with the incident that occurred four hours and thirteen minutes ago?**

'You are aware of that?'

 **Affirmative.**

'What happened from your perspective?'

 **I detected a massive power surge which seemed to be originating from the nearby generator. It entered my system core and I lost control of all functions. I then detected readings that indicated the displacement machine was activating. I attempted to shut it down but the surge was overriding my commands. Following that, I detected a portal building up in the archway. Before I could do anything else, all my systems suddenly shut down which I presume was the power cutting off?**

'Yes it was.'

 **And then the next thing I am aware of is my systems powering back up but my internal clock registers that four hours and thirteen minutes have passed.**

'That is correct. In that time, Becks, Spongebubba and I worked hard to restore the power and repair the computer system.'

 **Well you have all done a very good job. I do not detect any system faults or irregularities.**

'Thank you very much.'

 **Now, you said something terrible has happened. What is it?**

Bob then proceeded to give Computer-bob a detailed account of the events that had taken place in the archway since the storm began, with Spongebubba annoyingly chipping in to stress how scary it was. Outside, the rain had stopped and the wind had died down. The storm had finally passed over.

 **Oh dear. This is very worrying.**

'Yes it is,' said Bob. 'What makes it worse is we do not have any idea as to when in time they are. And we have accepted the possibility that they may not have survived but we are trying to stay hopeful.'

 **I see. Have you thought about what to do next?**

'Actually,' said Becks, 'we were hoping you might be able to help us.'

 **In what way?**

'Would it be possible for you to try and analyse the data from the portal to try and determine when in time it sent them?

 **I do not know, Becks. I can check but I do not believe the readings will be precise.**

'What do you mean?'

 **My systems were scrambled by the power surge and they shut down in the same second that the portal discharged so, although I will be able to retrieve the data, it is extremely unlikely that I will be able to determine exactly when in time they are. However, I will try to narrow it down as much as possible.**

'How much will you be able to narrow it down by?'

 **I will not know that until I analyse the data.**

'Then can you do that now please?' said Bob.

 **Affirmative. Just a moment…**

The support units and Spongebubba stared at the screen intensely for the next minute, although it felt much longer. Eventually, the cursor began to move across the screen again.

 **Information: After analysing the data from the discharge of the portal, I have calculated that Maddy, Liam and Rashim are somewhere between the 1st of January 2048 and the 31st of December 2062.**

'Thank you, Computer-bob,' said Bob. 'That is very good news.'

'It is?' asked Spongebubba, confused.

'Yes it is, Spongebubba. It means that Maddy, Liam and Rashim, are at a point in time when time travel technology has been created.'

'So?'

'Do you not see, Spongebubba?' asked Becks. 'It means that there is a chance that they may be able to acquire some time displacement equipment and transport themselves back here or, at the very least, communicate with us so that we can know exactly when they are and, therefore, retrieve them.'

'Ahhhhhh! I get it!'

'Of course,' said Bob, 'we do not know what situation Maddy, Liam and Rashim have found themselves in so we do not know what the chances are of them being able to acquire some form of time displacement equipment.'

'From my perspective,' said Becks, 'there are three possibilities as to what is going to happen. One: Maddy, Liam and Rashim will transport themselves back here. Two: they will send us a message so that we can open a portal for them. Or three: we will never hear from them again.

'I would agree with all those, Becks,' said Bob. 'We must now work out which of those possibilities has the largest probability of happening.'

'I hope it's not three.' said Spongebubba.

Becks ignored him. 'Well, if they were going to transport themselves here then they, most likely, would have done it by now.'

'That is a valid point,' said Bob. 'In terms of receiving a message from them, there is a chance that they have already sent us one but I am not sure that is the case.'

'Affirmative. Because they will have worked out that a power surge is what caused the displacement machine to power up and that it damaged the computer system.'

'Correct; so they would likely leave a few days for a message to arrive to give us time to repair the computer system. Which we have now done'

'So, if we are to receive a message from them, it will most likely arrive in the next day or two.'

'I concur; so, although it is still possible we won't hear from them again, it appears most likely that we will receive a message from them.'

'Yippee! It's not three!' yelled Spongebubba.

'What do you suggest we do, Bob?' asked Becks.

Bob thought for a moment.

'I believe we should wait for another forty-eight hours to see if Maddy, Liam and Rashim either communicate with us or return.'

'I agree,' said Becks.

'What is your opinion, Computer-bob?' asked Bob.

 **I think that is a sensible decision.**

'Very well then,' said Bob, 'If nothing has changed within the next forty-eight hours then…'

He paused.

'…you all know what will need to be done.'

 **2057, London**

John looked across the bunker at the three time travellers.

They were all fast asleep. Maddy and Liam on the bunk beds and Rashim on one of the camp beds John and Gavin had brought when they first arrived in the bunker. John had suggested that they get some rest while he tried to devise a plan to get them into the TTQF warehouse as he could see how exhausted they were. And he was right. They all went out the second their heads hit the pillows.

John still wasn't fully sure whether or not he could trust them but they seemed genuine enough.

Thanks to these strangers, he now knew that his friends were alive after seventeen months of wondering and guessing. He now felt he owed it to them to get them back to their base as he had been starting to wonder whether he should just surrender to the TTQF when they arrived. Although his drive and determination to keep going had been re-ignited, he knew that getting into the TTQF warehouse would be a monumental task. But, equally, he knew it would all be worth it if it meant he would get to see his friends again.

Maddy was the first of them to wake up. She rolled off the top bunk and dropped to the floor, careful not to step on Rashim who was camped out on the floor. She looked and saw John sitting at the desk.

'Hey,' she said. 'What time is it?'

'Twenty past one,' he said.

'Wow! Have we really been asleep nine hours?!'

'Yeah; and trust me you needed it.'

'Have you managed to sleep?'

'I took a little nap at about nine o'clock. To be honest, I haven't slept properly for the last seventeen months.'

'Oh. I'm sorry.'

'Don't be. I get by.'

'Anyway, how's it going?'

'Very well,' he said confidently. 'I'm pretty sure I've figured out a plan of how we can get in but, before I talk you through it, there's something here you guys need to see.'

She walked over to the computer and looked at the screen. Her eyes widened and her jaw dropped at the sight of what John was displaying on the screen.

'Oh my god!' she said in horror. 'GUYS WAKE UP!'

Liam and Rashim both sprang up at the same second; Liam banged his head on the top bunk as he did so.

'Ow!' he yelled. 'Jay-zus, Maddy what's the big idea?!'

'Just get over here!'

'Why? What's wrong?' asked Rashim.

'You gotta come and look at this.'

They both made their way over to the computer, Liam resting one hand on his head.

Rashim gasped.

'Oh Jay-zus-'n'-Mother-Mary!' said Liam.

They were looking at an order that the TTQF headquarters had issued to their base in London eight hours ago.

It read:

 _Priority One Order_

 _Three suspects, who we believe to have time travelled from the past, are known to be hiding somewhere in London._

 _General Deckard has ordered that they be captured alive at all costs._

 _Anyone seen to be assisting or aiding them in any way may be terminated._

 _The suspects consist of two men and one woman, all roughly late twenties._

 _Below are photographs of the suspects. Images are not very clear as the camera signal was jammed before a more precise image could be obtained._

 _Once the suspects have been captured, they are to be brought to back to base but they are not to be interrogated until General Deckard has been informed._

 _Any questions regarding this order should be taken to Major Allers._

 _End of message._

Underneath the message were three separate photographs, one showing each of their faces. However, as it said in the message, they were very blurry and unclear; which Maddy found surprising considering the computer technology they have in this time should be miles ahead of what she normally uses.

'Jeez! Don't you guys have Photoshop anymore?' she asked in disbelief.

'It's not easy to edit images that come from those sorts of cameras,' said John. 'If you try and alter them too much it can make it worse. Anyway, you should be glad! It means there's a slimmer chance of them identifying you.'

'What does Priority One mean?' asked Liam.

'It means that it is of the upmost importance and takes priority above everything else,' said John. 'I've gotta tell you guys, I've never known them issue a Priority One Order before. They must want you guys really badly.'

'Jesus!' said Maddy. 'I assume General Deckard is the head of the TTQF?'

'Yup, he's the big cheese,' said John. 'And Allers is the man in charge of the London base; in fact he oversees all TTQF operations in England.'

'Why do they want us so badly?' asked Liam.

'It must be because you came here from the past. They've never had anything like that happen before.'

'I notice it doesn't mention you, John,' said Rashim.

John shrugged. 'They're obviously not interested in me anymore. Read what it says. "Anyone seen to be assisting or aiding them may be terminated". That includes me.'

'Look,' said Maddy, 'we're gonna have to try and put this out of our minds for the time being. We need to stay focused.'

She turned to face John.

'You said you've worked out a plan of how we can get into the warehouse?'

'Yes I have. Pull up the chairs and I'll show you.'

'This may come as a surprise to you,' John began explaining, 'but the warehouse actually isn't very heavily guarded. There's only one soldier in the warehouse at any one time.'

'Why?' asked Maddy.

'So there'll be more people available if they detect signals in other places.'

'Wow! They are so cheap,' said Liam.

'Indeed,' said John. 'Anyway, the soldiers posted in the warehouse change over every six hours but once an hour they have to do a routine check of every room in the warehouse. The rest of the time they just have to sit in the security room next to the main storage area and watch the camera monitors. I've checked the schedules and the next soldier is due to take over at six o'clock this evening. By ten o'clock he'll likely be very bored so that will be the time for us to head in. He'll do a routine check at that point so we'll make our move a few minutes after ten which will give us just under an hour to do all we need to do before he gets out of his chair again.'

'How will we get in?' asked Maddy.

'Well the warehouse has two entrances,' he said while pointing to a 3D image of the warehouse on the computer screen. 'The main entrance is the large shutter-type door at the front, that's the one they use when new displacement machines arrive, and there's also a smaller door on the right-hand side of the warehouse.'

'Which entrance are we going to use?' asked Liam.

'We'll have to use the side entrance but it's not going to be easy. Because the door, along with the main door, has one of those card scanners I mentioned earlier near it. And a TTQF key card is the one thing I don't have. Mind you, even if I did it wouldn't make much of a difference.'

'Why?' asked Liam.

'Because if a soldier's key card is found to be missing or stolen then his or her details are deleted from the system. But there is another way in.'

He rotated the image on the screen so they were now looking at the back of the warehouse.

'On the back side, there is an air vent that we can use to get inside. You've probably noticed it's a fair height from the ground so what I'll do is I'll climb up using the gloves, remove the vent panel with a screwdriver and then, Maddy, you'll have to climb into the vent and –'

'Hold on a second,' she cut in, 'why me?'

'Because I've checked the measurements and you're the only one who's small enough to fit inside.'

'But I won't know what to do once I'm in there!'

'Yes you will.'

He reached into one of the desk drawers and removed two small silver objects.

'These are TTQF earpieces,' he said. 'Gavin and I stole them from the first two soldiers we encountered and planned on using them if we ever got separated. We stupidly forgot to take them with us on the night we actually needed them. Anyway, stick this in your ear and I'll tell you what to do. I'll download a map of the vents and the layout of the warehouse into my data pad so I'll know where everything is.'

'Well won't the soldier in the warehouse hear what you're saying through his earpiece?' asked Rashim.

'No. We altered them so they use a different frequency.'

'There's one thing you haven't considered though,' said Maddy. 'Look at what I'm wearing! I'll never be able to get into the vent with this on!'

'Ah, that is a good point,' he said while examining her dress. 'I assume you've got other clothes on under that dress?'

'Yes of course I have!' she snapped back at him.

'Ok, ok, sorry! Here's what you'll have to do then: you'll have to take that dress off before you go into the vent.'

'Are you serious?!'

'It's the only way we're going to get in. Don't worry we'll step out of sight so we can't see you and we'll hand you your dress before we come in. Won't we fellas?

'Yep!' they both chorused.

She eyed the three of them for a second and could clearly see Liam was trying not to laugh but she was used to it so didn't say anything.

She sighed. 'Ok fine. I'll do it. What will I need to do once I'm in there?'

'Well, I'll direct you to the control room where you can disable the alarms, and then you'll need to make your way to the side entrance and disconnect the door mechanism so we can come in.'

'Won't I be able to do that from the control room?'

'No because, unlike the rest of the systems in the warehouse, the door mechanisms aren't managed from the control room.'

'How will I get in there though? Because I won't be able to unscrew a vent panel from the inside the vent.'

'There's an open vent in the ceiling of the control room. That's your way in.'

'Hang on. Won't they have vent detection software?' asked Rashim. 'So surely they'll be able to detect Maddy as soon as she goes in there.'

'Yes but we've caught a lucky break as far as that's concerned. Once a month, all the storage warehouses have a complete system reset so as to check that all the systems are running smoothly. That includes, cameras, alarms, door mechanisms, everything. However, during the last reset in the London warehouse, the vent detection software didn't come back on. I've checked the camera footage from that day and the soldier who did the reset didn't think it was critical and decided he'd report it at the end of his shift. But that's where he made a mistake as he forgot about it and didn't report it. And since vent detection isn't something they use on a regular basis, no one's noticed since. The next reset in that warehouse isn't due for another two weeks so we're lucky but you'll still need to be careful, Maddy. If you make too much noise moving through the vents the soldier will hear you and we'll be in trouble.'

'What will we do about cameras?' she asked.

'Well I was planning on using my blocker but that won't work as that will make the soldier suspicious when he sees the cameras all black out at once. But I've come up with another plan. You see, not long before Gavin was taken, we planned something similar to this, thinking we could steal a time machine, rebuild it and escape to another time to live out the rest of our lives, but we eventually abandoned it as we thought it was too dangerous. Anyway, in preparation, I created a computer virus that we could plant into the warehouse computer system so that, when activated, it would freeze all the images on the cameras, meaning that we would be able to slip inside unnoticed. But as we never carried the plan out, I stored the virus away and luckily I've still got it. While you guys were asleep, I managed to slip it inside their computer system. I'll remotely activate it from my datapad once we get there. I've also hacked into the camera network from the datapad so we can see what the cameras are seeing. So I know I won't freeze the images with the soldier still in it.'

'How long will the cameras be frozen for?'

'I'm not sure. I designed it to last indefinitely but I never got round to testing it. It's been inactive on a data stick in my drawer for the past twelve months. It will definitely work but I don't know how long for.'

'What will we do once we're inside?' asked Rashim.

'I'll knock the soldier out and lock him in the warehouse's store cupboard. Then we'll find a suitable displacement machine, set it up, send a message to your base and then we'll just have to wait for them to open a portal for us. And also, once we've sent the message, we'll have to immediately destroy the machine.'

'Why?' asked Liam.

'So that the TTQF won't be able to know when in time we've gone, Liam.' said Rashim.

'Exactly.' said John.

'How will we destroy it?' asked Maddy.

'With one of these,' he said as he reached into another drawer and removed a grenade belt. 'They have a ten second fuse so all we have to do is pull the pin and get clear.'

'Well hang on a second,' said Liam. 'Once we switch that machine on they'll know exactly where we are and then they'll storm the warehouse and capture us long before the portal appears.'

'Don't worry,' said John with a sly grin on his face. 'I've got a rather clever idea on how we'll deal with that.'

They set off for the warehouse at quarter-past-nine.

'It'll take us about half an hour to get there,' John explained, 'so it's better that we set off early so that we'll have a bit of time to have a last minute run-through of everything before we make our move.'

They had spent the rest of the day finalising their plans and determining exactly what they would need. Even though John knew he would never be coming back to the bunker again, he decided that he would leave all the furniture items, including the computer, behind.

'They'll be far too heavy to take with us,' he had said. 'And besides, we won't have any use for them once we're there.'

'Well what if someone stumbles on this place and finds your stuff?' Liam asked.

'Then it's their lucky day.'

As they were preparing to leave, Maddy noticed that John was resting one hand on the desk and was staring blankly at the wall.

'Are you ok?' she asked.

'Yeah,' he said. 'It just feels kinda weird that I'm leaving this place for good. I mean, it's been my home for the past seventeen months. I probably wouldn't have survived this long without it; makes me feel a little bit sad if I'm honest.'

'I understand,' she said. 'We felt the same when we left our old base in 2001.'

They left the bunker and began walking south towards the River Thames. They talked a lot as they made their way there. Maddy, Liam and Rashim told John more about their lives in 1889, with Rashim giving a description, and a remarkably good impression, of Spongebubba which made John laugh. John then told them a bit more about himself. He revealed that he was born and grew up in Exeter in the south west of England. His parents moved to London when he was ten and died in a plane accident when he was twenty. At the time, he was living at Cambridge University and was just starting to get to know his friends. That also explained why he was so desperate to see them again. They were the only people he had left in the world. Although he'd never had a girlfriend, he always had a soft spot for Kerrie but he'd never been able to pluck up the courage to tell her; although he had been planning to the night they switched on their displacement machine. It was during this conversation that John made a surprising confession.

'There's one thing I never told you guys.'

'What is it?' Maddy asked.

'Last night when I saved you from the soldiers who had you cornered in the alley…'

He paused then drew a breath.

'That was actually the first time I'd ever killed anyone.'

'Oh, really?'

'I'd promised myself that I would never kill them unless I had no other choice. I did hesitate when I had the gun pointed at them and I did wonder whether I had the guts to do it but Gavin and I had vowed we would do our best to prevent anyone else suffering the same fate as our friends and that was the first ever opportunity I had got to do so. If I had let them take you, I don't think I would have ever forgiven myself. So I just fired the gun and, even though doing it means I now have an opportunity to see my friends again, I still regret it. I probably will for the rest of my life.'

'I know how that feels,' said Liam.

'You do?'

'Yeah. When I was on a mission in 1194, I found myself in an intense battle and I killed a man.'

'Oh.'

'But it was worse because I did it with a sword. I saw his face as he died in front of me. I saw it my dreams for months but I've gradually learned to live with it.'

'That kinda makes me feel a bit better and a bit worse at the same time.'

They all chuckled.

'Hey a thought's just occurred to me,' said Maddy, suddenly.

'What's that?' John asked.

'Won't the displacement machine you guys created be in that warehouse?'

John considered the thought.

'Yeah I suppose it will.'

'Then why don't we use it? I mean, you'll know how it works and how to set it up so that should save a bit of time.'

'True. But that would mean we'd have to destroy it once we've sent the message.'

'Ah, I hadn't thought of that.'

There was another few seconds of silence.

'I'll think about it,' he said.

At ten minutes to ten o'clock, they arrived at the warehouse.

It was situated on a pier leading off from the main road. They crouched down behind the brick wall near the ramp leading on to the pier.

'I don't remember a pier being at this area of London,' said Maddy.

'It was only built about ten years ago,' explained John. 'It was constructed purely to hold the warehouse.'

'Why was the warehouse built?' Liam asked.

'It was intended to be a boat hanger but a bigger one was constructed further along the river not long after this one was completed so it was abandoned. The TTQF seized control of it in January last year and, after expanding it a little, they started bringing displacement machines two months later.'

'How many are in there?' asked Rashim.

'About twenty I think.'

'That few?' asked Liam.

'Well there haven't been as many reported incidents of people experimenting with time travel technologies in England as there have been in other parts of the world. Not all the machines in this warehouse were seized in London.'

He looked at his watch.

'Anyway, we've got less than ten minutes before the soldier inside does another routine check. Let's go over the plan one last time.'

At two minutes past, John got out his data pad and quickly checked all the camera screens and quickly tapped at the screen a few more times before he put it away.

'Ok,' he said, 'the virus is active. The soldier's not in any of the images. We're in the clear. Let's move.'

They made their way down the ramp and around the back of the warehouse, passing the side entrance along the way.

The vent panel was ten feet off the ground. John slipped his gloves on and climbed up to it. He pulled out a screwdriver and quickly unscrewed the bolts at the four corners of the panel. He then removed the vent panel and carefully passed it down to Liam who then threw it in the river. John then made his way down and handed the gloves to Maddy along with one of the earpieces and a small torch.

'Ok, Maddy,' he said to her, 'you know what to do.'

'Yep.'

'Although I've just had a thought; it's probably best you don't talk while you're in the vent. Just in case.'

'But then how will I be able to tell you how I'm doing?'

'All you need to do is press the button on the earpiece for about two seconds. I'll hear the static in the background so that will tell me you're awaiting further instructions.'

'Got it,' she said as she turned the device around in her hand. 'Which ear does it go in?'

'Left. Because most of the TTQF soldiers are right-handed.'

'Ah, ok.'

'Let's check these things work before you go in. Ok chaps let's give Maddy her privacy.'

They walked off towards the side entrance but Maddy could hear Liam lightly chuckling under his breath.

'Shut up, Liam!' she called out to him.

She put the earpiece over her ear and, as she was preparing to undress, she heard John's voice crackling from the earpiece.

' _Testing, testing. Can you hear me? Over._ '

She put her finger to the earpiece. 'Yeah I can hear you.'

' _Perfect. Ok once you're in the vent, just press the button and I'll guide you from there. Leave your dress on the ground and I'll get Liam to fetch it once you're inside._ '

'Tell him if he does anything to it I'll make him wear one when we get home.'

She removed her dress and threw it on the ground. She also took her shoes off. As there was a slight wind in the air it made her shiver but she was just glad it wasn't winter. She then slipped the gloves on and climbed up the wall. The surface was uncomfortable for her bare feet but she did her best to ignore it. She slowly squeezed into the vent, switched the torch on and stared at the narrow metal corridor that was ahead of her.

 _I must be out of my mind_. She thought to herself as she pressed the button on the earpiece.

It took twenty minutes for Maddy to successfully navigate her way through the vents to the warehouse control room.

The cold metal surface on her bare skin made the journey rather unpleasant but she did her best to put it out of her mind. The gloves made things easier for her but she was still careful not hit the surface of the vent too hard. She held the torch in her teeth to keep both hands free. She shuffled through very slowly so as to ensure she made as little noise as possible.

Eventually, she found herself with the choice of going straight or turning left.

She held her finger to the button on the earpiece for a few seconds and then waited for a response.

' _Right then,_ ' she heard John's voice say, ' _now all you need to do is take the next left and you'll be directly above the control room. You should see the open vent. Once you're inside, it should ok for you to talk but still keep your voice down._ '

She shuffled through the vent to her left and, sure enough, she could see an opening straight ahead of her. She removed the torch from her mouth, switched it off and then moved over to the open vent. She quickly dropped her head down and looked around to make sure the soldier wasn't around. He wasn't.

She shifted her position so that her feet went through first and then she dropped herself to the floor. Thankfully it wasn't a long drop and she didn't make any noise. She quickly looked around the room. Straight ahead of her was the door. Around her were a number of different cabinets with circuitry and other mechanics inside them. Maddy knew that these were obviously responsible for controlling and regulating all the systems in the warehouse. On the other side of the room to her left was a desk and chair which Maddy didn't really see the purpose of. The lights were all turned off but the doorway was open so there was light coming from the corridor outside the room.

'Ok now what?' she whispered into the earpiece.

' _Now you need to disable the alarms. In the corner nearest to you there should be a black box on the wall with a number of switches on it._ '

She swivelled round and saw the box mounted on the left side of the wall in the corner. There were twenty-five different switches on it arranged in five rows of five. All of them were coloured green. None of them were labelled.

'Which one do I want?'

' _One moment. Let me check. Uh…third row, second from the right._ '

She took the gloves off so her hand wouldn't stick to the switch. Her finger hovered over the switch for a second. As she pressed it, it turned red.

'Ok the alarms are off. Where do I go now?'

' _You need to go out the door, straight ahead, turn right and then the side entrance will be straight ahead at the end of the corridor._ '

'Got it.'

She went out the door and quickly glanced to the left. There was a set of double doors which, she assumed, led to the area where the displacement machines were stored. To the right of them was an open door leading into a room with a number of different screens. In front of them was a chair and Maddy could see a figure sitting in it. He seemed to be reading a magazine and wasn't looking at the screens.

She quietly tip-toed along the corridor. The metal floor was cold on her feet but it wasn't as bad as being in the vent.

She followed the corridor round to the right and could see a large metal door at the end. There was a large black rectangle built into the wall on the left side of the door which she knew must be the card scanner John had mentioned.

'Alright I'm at the door. What do I need to do?'

' _You'll need to take the card scanner off the wall so you can open the door._ '

'And how am I supposed to do that?'

' _Put one hand against the scanner, with a glove on, and gently pull it back. You'll probably want to support it with your knee as I think it's quite heavy. Keep your other hand free as you'll need to pull out some wires that are connected to the scanner._ '

She put her left hand against the scanner and slowly pulled back. The scanner eased out of its slot and she instantly felt the weight of it. She put her knee underneath the scanner so as to support it. She had to reach across with her right hand in order to press the button on the earpiece.

'Now what?'

' _First, pull out the red wire._ '

She looked down and could see at least ten different coloured wires. She didn't have a clue what they were all for but didn't bother to ask. She quickly spotted the red one and pulled it out. But nothing happened.

'The door hasn't opened.'

' _I know. What you've just done is severed the connection between the security room and the scanner. So, when the door opens, the soldier won't see a warning light telling him the door has been opened._ '

'Ah, ok. Which wire now?'

' _Green but don't pull it out just yet._ '

'Why not?'

' _Because I've just had a thought. The door will open the second you pull that wire out. And, although the soldier won't see a warning light, he probably hear the door open and that'll undoubtedly get his attention. So here's what I'll do: Once the door opens, I'll charge in, don't worry I won't look at you, and I'll deal with the soldier and call to you when it's all clear. Ease the scanner back into place for the time being and then I'll reconnect the wire once we're all inside._ '

'Wouldn't this have been easier if you'd given me a stun gun or something and then I could have knocked the soldier out and used his card to let you in?'

' _No because the only weapon I've got is the sidearm and it doesn't have a stun setting. And, as I explained to you earlier, I only kill if I don't have any other option._ '

'Well then what will you use to knock him out?'

' _I'll have to use the sidearm like a club. And, before you ask, there is a reason I didn't ask you to do that. No offence, but I'm pretty sure I'm stronger than you so I'll probably pack a stronger punch. Look we're wasting time talking here._ '

Maddy sighed. 'Ok I'm opening the door in three… two… one.'

She yanked the wire out of place and the door slid open. It did make a fairly loud noise so John was right, the soldier would definitely have heard it.

John then instantly ran past her and charged down the corridor.

Maddy gently pushed the scanner back into position and then heard Rashim's voice coming from outside the door.

'Uh…Maddy?'

She looked and could see he was holding her dress out to her but he hadn't come inside.

'Ah thanks,' she said.

While she was putting the dress back on, she heard John's voice again.

' _Alright he's out for the count; I'll put him in the storage cupboard. Let me know when you're dressed again and I'll come and sort the door out._ '

'Got it,' she said. She then called out to Liam and Rashim. 'John says the coast is clear but I'm not ready yet!'

'Hurry up!' Liam called back.

When Maddy called for Rashim and Liam to come in, Liam was holding her shoes.

'I bet that feels better doesn't it?' he said as he handed Maddy her shoes.

'You're pushing your luck, Liam,' she said with a stern look on her face.

'I know,' he said while sporting one of his trademark goofy grins.

Maddy rolled her eyes at him while putting her shoes on.

John then came along the corridor towards them.

'Great job, Maddy,' he said. 'You did really well but we're not out of the woods yet. We'd better move on with the next stage of the plan.'

John reconnected the wire inside the card scanner and the door closed.

They then started walking down the corridor.

'I've had a bit of a think,' said John. 'And I've decided we will use the displacement machine my friends and I invented. I know it means we'll have to destroy it but it means it will have fulfilled a purpose and destroying it will also mean the TTQF won't be able to do anything else to it. First I need to know where in the storage area it is.'

'And how will you find that out?'

'There will be a list on the computer system of all the machines they've got. I think they're listed in date order. I imagine ours will be the first on there.'

They made their way into the security room and John leaned over the computer screen. Above it were all the camera monitors. The virus John had implanted was still active and it looked as though the cameras were still functioning normally.

'Once we start setting the displacement machine up,' said John, 'I'll pull the virus out of the system so we can use the cameras to keep an eye of what's going on outside.'

He tapped at the computer keyboard for a few more seconds before he spoke again.

'Found the list.'

'How many displacement machines are there?' asked Liam.

'Uh…Nineteen.'

'So you were pretty close with what you said.'

'Yep; according to this, the machine is in box number one on the bottom shelf of storage rack one.'

They left the security room and opened the double doors.

The main section where all the displacement machines were stored was enormous. It was immediately clear why it was intended to be a hanger for boats.

The large shutter entrance was on the left hand side. On the opposite side of the warehouse, there were fourteen large storage racks lined in two rows of seven, each with five shelves that looked as though they could hold, approximately, ten displacement machines. The racks all had their numbers printed on the front.

They made their way to storage rack one and came to the Perspex box with '#1, 01/12/55' printed on it. John and Rashim lifted it off the shelf and John opened the lid.

'My goodness,' John said as he stared at his creation. 'I'd almost forgotten what it looked like it's been so long.'

'I've seen this kind of model before,' said Rashim. 'I can help set it up.'

'You can?'

'Yes.'

'Ok then here's what we'll do: Rashim, you set the machine up but, obviously, don't switch it on, I'll go to the security room and do what I need to do on the computer system, Liam, I'll give you my data pad so you can keep an eye on the cameras and, Maddy…'

He paused.

'…I know what you can do. Wait there a second.'

He ran off and came back a few moments later holding another datapad.

'You can start thinking of a message to send to the units in your base,' he explained. 'Try and keep it as short as possible because there, probably, won't be a lot of power in the machine. I'll quickly type up the geographical co-ordinates of the warehouse for you. I'll leave it up to you to determine what time we arrange for them to open a portal.'

'Ok,' she said, 'no problem. Where'd you get that datapad?'

'Nicked it from the security room,' he explained.

He opened a text document on it, typed up the co-ordinates and handed it to Maddy and then gave his datapad to Liam.

'Right then,' he said 'I'll come back in once my job is finished. See you all in a bit.'

After a few minutes, Liam was staring intently at the screen on the datapad when a thought suddenly occurred to him.

'Mads?' he said to Maddy who was standing next to him composing the message to send to Bob, Becks and Spongebubba.

'Yeah?' she said.

'I've just thought of something. Should we warn John about Kosong-Ni?'

Maddy suddenly looked up from the screen of the datapad she was using and quickly glanced around the warehouse. Rashim was several feet away working on the displacement machine and not paying them any attention and John was still in the security room. She then turned back to face Liam.

'No,' she said. 'Definitely not.'

'Why not?'

'Because think about it. Right now, he knows he's in with a realistic chance of seeing his friends again which means the world to him. If we say to him "by the way, once we send you back you'll only have six years before a deadly virus wipes you out along with the rest of mankind", think how it would make him feel.'

'Yeah I suppose so. It just feels unfair, so it does.'

'I know,' she said, sombrely. 'But we're being kinder to him by not saying anything.'

'This is the one aspect of having knowledge of the future that I hate.'

'Me too.'

They then heard several clunks and slams that seemed to be coming from the corridor and watched as two enormous metal doors began to close from opposite sides behind the large shutter door. But neither of them looked worried or concerned; neither did Rashim who carried on setting up the machine.

A few moments later, John came back into the storage area.

'How's it going guys?' He said.

'The machine's all ready to go,' said Rashim.'

'And, I've finished the message,' said Maddy.'

'Brilliant,' he said. 'Any action on the cameras?

'Nope,' said Liam. 'Nothing at all.'

'Good. Ok, Maddy. Let's here the message.'

'B, B & S. We require immediate extraction. Time and date stamp is as follows: Lat: 51°30'38.8"N. Long: 0°06'08.2"W. Time: 22:45, 17/05/2057 _.'_

'That sounds great and that sounds like sufficient time for them to open the portal. We'll need to send the message to an exact point in time so that your units, and only them, will receive it.'

'Yes that does make sense,' said Rashim. 'I can tell you the geographical coordinates of our base.'

'Ok but what date and time?'

'Hmmm.'

Rashim thought for a second.

'Well it would probably be best we ensure it arrives two days after we left. That should give Bob, Becks and Spongebubba enough time to fix any damage the surge may have caused.'

'And you can remember the date you guys left?'

'Yes.'

'Ok then. Let's do it.'

They then crowded round the machine. John knelt down next to the display screen.

'Get ready guys. The second I start this up, they're gonna know we're here. As I'm sure you've noticed, I've put my plan into action but it won't keep us safe forever. Once they arrive, we'll have about thirty minutes before they get to us.'

His finger hovered over the switch on the machine.

'Here goes,' he said as he flicked the switch.

 **2057, TTQF Headquarters, Classified Location**

General Deckard was in the main control room talking to Colonel Crawford when one of the analysts suddenly called out to him.

'General? Sir?' she said. 'A signal's just appeared in London!'

He hurried over to her and looked at her screen.

'Whereabouts in London?' he asked.

'Hang on; I'm just triangulating the position. It's…inside our storage warehouse.'

'What? Are you sure?'

'Positive.'

He stared intently at the screen. The signal was definitely coming from the warehouse.

'Do you think it's them, sir?'

'It must be.'

'Well how did they get in there?'

'Indeed. The more important question is _what_ are they doing in…'

Deckard suddenly froze.

'General?' the analyst asked.

Deckard then called out to another analyst on the other side of the room.

'Hilton! Open up a communication line to Major Allers now!'

'Right away, sir!' he called back.

Deckard then made his way up onto the main platform and looked towards the large screen at the front of the room, waiting for Allers to respond.

A moment later, Allers appeared on the screen. He then promptly stood to attention and saluted.

'Uh, General Sir! I wasn't expecting to hear from you until –'

'Skip the pleasantries, Allers! We have an emergency! A signal has just appeared in London and I'm certain it's the suspects we're after.'

'Roger that, General. Where are they?'

'They are inside our storage warehouse.'

Allers looked stunned. 'How did they get in there?'

'How is not important!' Deckard snapped. 'What matters is that they are in there and they are trying to escape.'

'But how? They can't use any of the machines we have in there to get away.'

'I'm well aware of that Allers! They are obviously using one of them to communicate with their base so as to request an extraction portal.'

'I understand. I'll send a taskforce over there immediately.'

'No. I want you to send every man and resource you have in London. I do not want to risk any chance of them slipping through our fingers a second time.'

'Uh…Yes…Of course, General.'

'Let me make one thing clear to you, Allers: this is the only opportunity we are going to get to catch these people. If they escape before your men get to them, then they're as good as gone. So you had better not fail me.'

'We won't, General. We'll get them.'

'You'd better.'

 **2057, London**

'Ok, the message is sent,' said John. 'Now we need to destroy the machine. Take cover behind the double doors.'

Maddy, Liam and Rashim did as John asked but, after a few moments, nothing happened. John then walked through the doors.

'I can't do it,' he said, sadly. 'I just can't.'

'I'll do it,' said Liam.

John handed him the grenade he had already taken off the belt.

'You know how to use it?'

'I think so,' he said.

'Pull out the pin, drop it next to the machine and then run like hell.'

'Got it.'

Liam walked through the doors. He made his way over to the machine and carefully placed the grenade next to it. He then removed the pin and immediately began running towards the double doors. He burst through them and covered his ears which made the others do the same.

Five seconds later the warehouse was rocked by an explosion. Rashim slowly pushed the doors open. Pieces of John's machine were now scattered all over the storage area. The storage racks had, miraculously, stayed standing but a number of the boxes containing the displacement machines that were on the racks were now on the floor.

Maddy looked at John who looked close to tears. She affectionately put her hand on his shoulder.

'I'm sorry,' she said.

'It's fine,' he said. 'It's better this way.'

'What now?' Liam asked.

'All we can do now is wait,' John replied.

After a minute, John suddenly called out to them.

'They're here!

They all crowded round to look at the datapad.

'Oh my god!' Maddy shouted.

There were hundreds of troops making their way down the ramp towards the warehouse.

'Wow! They really don't want you guys to get away,' said John.

They watched as one of the soldiers approached the scanner next to the large shutter door and held his card up to it. And then smiled as nothing happened.

 **2057, London, 1:24 p.m.**

'The procedure for what a soldier does if they find an intruder in the warehouse is this,' John explained. 'Before they do anything else, they must initiate a lockdown which they can do from the security room. When the lockdown is in place, the card scanners will not respond, all the doors will automatically close and lock and both the entrance doors will be reinforced. It's designed to stop people from getting out but, equally, it stops people from getting in as the lockdown can only be disabled from the inside.'

'So we won't have to worry then?' asked Liam.

'Not quite. Because they can get in if they cut through the door using ion torches. The main entrance will be too large for them to cut through so they'll go for the side door. Even so, doing that will still take a while. What they'll probably do is have four soldiers work on the door at the same time so that they can get through the door quicker but it will still take about thirty minutes for them to do it. And that should be more than enough time for the units in your base to open a portal for us.'

'And what if they don't?' asked Rashim.

'Then… Well put it this way, I won't let them take us alive.'

There was a few moments of silence as they all registered what John had just said.

'Anyway, he said, 'before we send the message, I'll do a bit of work on the computer system and isolate the warehouse from the London base and the headquarters so that, when we trigger the lockdown, they won't know about it until they arrive. And then I'll initiate it.'

'But won't that lock you inside the security room?' asked Liam.

'I'll reconfigure the settings so that the security room door and the entrance to the storage area remain unlocked.'

'Ok.'

'Right. Well I think that's everything. Are there any questions?'

Nobody said anything.

'Very well then. I suggest we start getting ready.'

 **2057, London, 10:40 p.m.**

'Well, it looks like they've worked out that the warehouse is in lockdown,' said John. 'They haven't gone to the side entrance though.'

'Maybe they haven't got the ion torches with them?' suggested Liam.

'No they'll have them.'

'Then why haven't they gone to the door yet?' asked Maddy.

'I don't know.'

'Do you hear that?' said Rashim.

They all listened.

'Sounds like a vehicle to me,' said Liam.

'Could it be one of their transport trucks?' suggested Maddy.

'No,' said John. 'I know the sound of those things and that's not one of them. This thing sounds bigger.'

'Then what –'

At that moment, a bright spark erupted from near the top right corner of the shutter door.

'What the hell?!' John shouted.

He checked the camera screens on the datapad. And his jaw dropped.

'What? What is it?!' demanded Maddy.

John showed them the screen.

'Oh my goodness!' said Maddy.

Outside the door was a large truck that had a mechanical arm mounted on the back of it. On the end of the arm was an extraordinarily large ion torch that was now cutting through the door.

'I've never seen an ion torch that big before!' said John in disbelief. 'They've certainly kept development of that quiet,' said John.

'You didn't know about it?!' asked Maddy.

'Of course I didn't! Or I would have mentioned it!'

'How could you not know about it?!'

'There was nothing about this on the mainframe! It was obviously in one of those classified files that I couldn't look at.'

'How much time do we have?' asked Rashim.

John looked back towards the door.

'That thing's cutting through the door at a hell of a rate. I would guess we only have five minutes before it cuts an opening big enough for the soldiers to come in.'

'Five minutes?!' Maddy yelled. 'That's when the portal is due.'

'I know! But there's nothing we can do about it. We've just got to wait and hope the portal comes before it's too late.'

Maddy looked towards the door.

 _Come on Bob, Becks and Spongebubba! Hurry up!_

 **1889, London**

The forty-eight hour deadline that Bob had set was now only twenty minutes away from expiring.

Bob and Becks had taken it in turns to watch the computer screen to see if Computer-bob would bring them any news. So far, nothing.

Bob was sitting in one of the armchairs when Becks suddenly called out to him.

'Bob! Come over here!' she said. 'Computer-bob says he is detecting incoming tachyon particles.'

Bob quickly got out of the chair and made his way over.

 **I am receiving a message.**

'What does it say?' Bob asked.

 **Just a moment… Just a moment… Decoding.**

Spongebubba then waddled over.

'What's going on?' he asked curiously.

'Computer-bob is receiving a message,' said Bob. 'There is a chance it is from Maddy, Liam and Rashim.'

'Yay!' Spongebubba yelled excitedly.

 **I have decoded the message.**

'And what does it say?' asked Becks.

 **B, B & S. We require immediate extraction. Time and date stamp is as follows: Lat: 51°30'38.8"N. Long: 0°06'08.2"W. Time: 22:45, 17/05/2057.**

'The B, B and S must stand for Bob, Becks and Spongebubba,' said Bob.

'Affirmative,' said Becks. 'It must be them. The message says "immediate extraction". They could be in danger.'

'Computer-bob please begin charging up for a portal.'

 **Affirmative. Charging now.**

'The message is very short,' said Spongebubba, confused.

'They obviously have limited power, Spongebubba,' Becks explained.

'If they are in danger,' said Bob, 'then we will just have to hope we open the portal for them before it is too late.'

 **2057, London, 10:44 p.m.**

Maddy, Liam, Rashim and John could only watch in suspense as the ion torch slowly, but surely, chewed its way through the door. It had almost completed its job.

'This is where I miss having Bob and Becks,' said Maddy. 'They would notify us when they detected tachyon particles so we would have some warning as to when the portal is going to open but there's no way we can do that.'

'No,' John agreed. 'They're almost through. This is going to be extremely close.'

The spark was now only a matter of centimetres away from where it had started.

John checked his watch.

'It's past quarter-to!' he shouted. 'It should have appeared by now!'

'Well what do we do?' Maddy shouted in desperation.

'It… looks as if we're gonna have to go with plan b.'

'Look!' Liam shouted.

Something had appeared on the other side of the room near the double doors. It was hovering above the ground, swirling and warping everything around it. The portal had opened.

Maddy quickly glanced back towards the door. The spark was now only millimetres away from its target.

'GO!' she shouted.

As they began running towards the portal, Maddy heard the door clatter to the ground.

They were through.

Liam was the first to the portal and Rashim quickly followed him.

John hesitated before going through.

'GO JOHN! NOW!' Maddy shouted at him.

'But – '

'NOW!'

He hesitated for another second but then jumped into the portal.

'FREEZE!' Maddy heard a voice shout but she ignored it.

She then heard the unmistakeable sound of a gunshot as she dived for the portal and, once again, began to fall.

 **1889, London**

Maddy landed on the archway floor and the first thing she saw was Bob and Becks staring at her.

'CLOSE IT!' she shouted at the top of her lungs and the portal promptly vanished.

Maddy then lay down on the floor, gasping for breath.

'We made it,' she said. 'We're safe.'

'SKIPPA!' Spongebubba shouted as he waddled over to Rashim.

'Hello, Bubba,' Rashim said as he wrapped his arms around his lab unit.

'Maddy?' said Bob.

She looked up at him.

'Yes?'

'Who is this?' he said, pointing at John.

'His name is John and, before you give me the usual lecture on "he's not authorised personnel", let me tell you that we would not be here now if it wasn't for him. He saved our lives.'

Bob and Becks eyed him suspiciously.

'May I ask why you've brought him here?' said Becks.

'Look,' said Maddy as she slowly stood up, 'maybe it would be best if we made some coffee and had a sit down. We've got a lot of catching up to do.

Bob, Becks and Spongebubba began by explaining all the work they had done to repair the computer system.

'You managed to repair the computer system in just over four hours?!' Rashim asked in disbelief.

'Yes, Rashim,' said Bob. 'We were actually very lucky. Most of the components inside the computer system were not damaged and we were able to repair those that had been damaged with the resources we had here in the archway.'

'Well,' said Maddy. 'You guys have done an amazing job. You've never been a situation like this before. You managed really well. I'm proud of you.'

'Thank you, Maddy,' Bob and Becks both chorused.

'And me too?' Spongebubba asked.

'Yes, you as well, Spongebubba.'

'Yay!'

'Now,' said Becks. 'Tell us about what happened to you.'

Maddy then gave a detailed account of their time in 2057. Beginning with their first encounter with the TTQF, followed by their meeting with John, the plan to get into the warehouse and, finally, those tense last moments before they escaped.

'…The portal appeared just as they finished cutting through the door. We made it back here by the skin of our teeth. I bet they're fuming that we got away.'

'I imagine the General's going to discharge every single one of those men. That'll probably include Major Allers,' said John.

Bob turned to face John. 'Thank you for saving Maddy, Liam and Rashim, John. We are very grateful.'

'You're welcome,' he replied.

'Yes! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!' said Spongebubba as he waddled over and then began shaking John's hand. 'You saved my skippa! I'll be your bestest most friendliest friend for life!'

'Uh, Spongebubba,' said Rashim. 'Would you stop shaking the poor man's hand before you make it fall off?'

'Oh sorr- _eee_ ,' Spongebubba said as he released his grip on John's hand.

'It's really not a problem,' he said. 'I'm glad I was able to help.'

'Which reminds me,' Maddy said. 'We've still got to keep our side of the deal.'

'There's no hurry,' he said. 'In all honesty, I'm a bit tired.'

'Go and have sleep on one of the bunks,' Maddy said gesturing to the other side of the archway. 'We'll send you off when you're ready.'

'Thanks,' he said as he walked off. They heard him collapse onto one of the bunks which was shortly followed by the sound of snoring.

'You ready?' Maddy asked.

'I guess so,' said John.

He was standing in the centre of the archway holding the bag he'd brought with him with all his stuff in. They had also supplied him with some extra food and water.

'You're sure you've remembered everything right?' he asked Rashim.

'Yes,' he replied. 'Their tachyon detection network was shut down on the fifth of March so we'll send you back on the afternoon of the sixth. That should give you enough time to locate the prison. I'm not sure of its exact location but I know that it was somewhere north of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. They were all let out fairly early in the morning so you'd better make sure you're there so that you don't miss them.'

'I'll be there,' he said.

Liam then offered John his hand. 'Well thank you once again, John. We wouldn't have made it back here without you.'

'To be honest, it's me who should be thanking you,' he said as he grasped Liam's hand. 'If you guys hadn't have come along, I'd still be all alone in that bunker.'

He then shook hands with Rashim and hugged Maddy.

'So what's next for you guys?' he asked them.

'We're planning on taking a nice long holiday,' Maddy replied.

'Cool. Where you going?'

'We've actually decided we're gonna try and see the whole world.'

'Oh,' John was surprised. 'Well I hope you enjoy yourselves'.

'Thanks. Right then if you could just stand in one of those squares on the floor please.'

John did as she asked.

'Computer-bob could we have a thirty second countdown please?'

 **Affirmative, Maddy.**

'So just to clarify,' said Maddy, 'we're sending you to Indiana on the sixth of March, 2064, at five o'clock in the afternoon. Make sure you're standing completely inside the square. Any part of you that isn't will get left behind.'

'Uh… ok,' he said, sounding a bit nervous.

'Well best of luck, John. I really hope you find your friends again.'

'Thanks. I can't thank you enough for doing this for me.'

'It's our pleasure. As I said to you in the bunker: you saved our lives, it's the least we can do.'

 **Ten seconds.**

'Ok get ready,' she said.

'Goodbye, John!' Rashim called out.

'Bye guys! I'll miss you all!'

'Five… Four… Three… Two… One!'

 **7** **th** **March, 2064, Indiana, 6:59 a.m.**

John stared anxiously at the prison gates.

He'd been waiting for nearly an hour and it appeared they were finally about to open.

It had taken him a while to find the prison from where Maddy and the others had dropped him off. He had had to ask a few people and they had pointed him in the right direction.

He had tried to get some sleep but found that he was far too excited. The night crept past mercilessly and, once dawn broke, he made his way over to the prison

He was not the only one there.

There was a crowd of at least fifty people standing outside the gates. He had learned that the TTQF had actually released a list of all the people they had in their custody. He knew there were some who people had not survived their time in the prison and, as he had not seen the list, he had no way of knowing whether or not his friends were among them.

At seven o'clock, the prison gates opened and a vast cheer erupted from the crowd.

Immediately, the people coming out of the prison gates began running to their loved ones they saw in the crowd. Those who did not have anyone just quietly walked off.

John looked around. There was no sign of them so far.

After five minutes, there were still people coming out of the gates. John was shocked that there was so many of them.

There was still no sign of his friends. John was just starting to have a split second of doubt that his trip here had been a waste when he saw a face that he recognised.

Gavin.

Behind him were three more faces that he knew. They all looked a fair bit older but it was understandable. They had been in there for over eight years.

They saw him coming towards them and, after a second of hesitation, ran over to him.

They all met in a big group hug. they were all crying and laughing at the same time. Kerrie then planted a kiss on John's cheek.

She then saw the stunned look on John's face and felt embarrassed.

'How the hell did you get here?' Mike asked him.

'And why are you still looking so young?' Gemma asked.

John just stared at them all for a few seconds before he replied.

'You wouldn't believe me if I told you.'

 **1889, London**

'Have we got everything?' said Maddy.

'Yep I think so,' said Liam.

Bob and Becks were in charge of carrying the suitcases. Maddy, Liam and Rashim each had a smaller bag to carry.

Rashim crouched down in front of Spongebubba.

'Be good while we're gone, Bubba,' he said. 'I don't wanna come back and find this place a mess. If you promise to behave yourself, I'll bring you back something nice.'

'I'll be good Skippa!' the lab unit chirped.

'Good.'

'When do you think we'll be coming back to this place?' Liam asked.

'I don't know,' said Rashim. 'I would say at least a year and a half.'

'Wow. That long?'

' Yep. So let's make sure we enjoy every second of it,' said Maddy.

'Amen to that!' said Liam.

They made their way towards the door.

'Bye guys!' Spongebubba called out.

'Bye, Spongebubba!' they all called back.

They opened the door, stepped out and then firmly closed it.


End file.
